I was intrigued by the column this week from our Materials Handling Editor Cliff Holste on a low cost approach to sortation for smaller distribution facilities.

You can find the full, excellent article here (see Sorting Completed Picks for the Smaller DC Operation) but in summary, the approach uses batch picking and conveyor take-away like a traditional sortation system, but the conveyor delivers those case to a basic circulating loop.

From there, the “sorting” is manual – operators look for the cartons they need based on information on the case labels, and build the consolidated pallets for shipping.

Very interesting.

In fact, in the late 1990s, I saw this exact approach being used very effectively at a Panasonic DC in Eglin, IL. I have no idea if the DC is still there let alone whether that approach is still in use, but I’ll be honest: I was trying to pitch them on some more automated approaches, and was having a hard time coming up with enough savings versus this more manual system. And this was not a low volume operation.

So, it’s an interesting idea not many companies have heard of or really considered.

This is the kind of insight we strike to provide at SCDigest and our new Distribution Digest home page. Let us know what other topics would be of interest.

I’d love your thoughts on this.