A recent survey of automated storage system suppliers shows that the pipeline is full of innovations in both technology and applications.

For instance, buffer systems for automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) speed order assembly times. Other systems are being outfitted to handle individual cartons as easily as full pallets. Meanwhile, advances in horizontal carousels and vertical lift modules (VLMs) streamline order fulfillment.

On the applications side, modular horizontal carousels are keeping the U.S. Marines supplied in Kuwait while VLMs are saving valuable floor space for a manufacturer in Illinois. And two quite different AS/RS are handling paper rolls for a Canadian printer and sofas for a furniture chain in Michigan.

These are just some of the latest new ideas in automated storage.

Horizontal Carousels

1. What's new: A put system consolidates broken case and split case orders into bins for retail distribution.

Why it's important: Reduces labor costs, improves picking accuracy, orderpicking rates above 300 lines an hour.

Supplier: Diamond Phoenix

2. What's new: Lights at individual bins identify the specific location of items to be picked in the QuickPick.

Why it's important: Improves orderpicking accuracy and speed with at-a-glance identification of the bin to be picked from.

Supplier: Remstar International

Vertical Lift Modules

3. What's new: Pickomat multi-bay system is for small- and medium-sized parts capable of 100 inventory movements an hour.

Why it's important: Requires minimal floor space for maximum storage density while reducing operator wait time for inventory at pick windows.

Supplier: Schaefer Systems International

4. What's new: Power Column 2 has upgraded with rack-and-pinion drive, Kevlar pinion gear, and standard rack structure.

Why it's important: Highly reliable, more precise positioning and ease of integration with other materials handling systems.

Supplier: White Systems, an FKI Logistex company

Automated Storage & Retrieval Systems

5. What's new: Free-roaming Maestro storage/retrieval machine moves between storage aisles using wireless communications.

Why it's important: Maximizes flexibility and equipment utilization while reducing initial capital expenditures and system payback time.

Supplier: Cleco Systems, an FKI Logistex company

6. What's new: Carton handling system allows unit load AS/RS to handle cartons individually regardless of size and weight.

Why it's important: Improves flow of individual cartons in order fulfillment as flexibility of handling is maxed out.

Supplier: Cleco Systems, an FKI Logistex company

Automated Storage & Retrieval Systems

7. What's new: Fully automated rotating fork storage/retrieval machine, the HK 3000, is compatible with both precision rack and conventional post-and-beam rack.

Why it's important: Reduces overall cost of new AS/RS substantially while allowing conventional rack systems to be upgraded from manual to automated handling.

Supplier: HK Systems

8. What's new: HK 4000/D tetherless pallet carrier for high-density, deep-lane systems uses wireless communications to store and retrieve pallet loads.

Why it's important: Eliminates need for cables that wear, tear and fail as it interfaces with standard automated storage systems.

Supplier: HK Systems

9. What's new: Triple-deep storage shuttle handles loads up to 2,500 pounds when fully extended and 4,000 pounds for single-deep storage.

Why it's important: Improves storage density by 50% over conventional double-deep shuttles.

Supplier: HK Systems

10. What's new: Double-deep, roll-handling shuttle cradles paper on a protected surface that is rounded to curvature of rolls.

Why it's important: Permits fast handling of rolls without damaging them in a double-density storage mode.

Supplier: HK Systems

11. What's new: Individual cartons stored on flat rails in an AS/RS are handled by a storage/retrieval mechanism with suction cups.

Why it's important: Maximizes flexibility by allowing individual cartons to be stored and retrieved from a unit load AS/RS.

Supplier: Siemens Dematic

12. What's new: Modular Storage System III handles different sized loads using a high-speed belt extractor in conventional post-and-beam rack and precision rack systems.

Why it's important: Removes cost from the system with conventional rack compatibility while maximizing flexibility to handle individual cartons and other items.

Supplier: SK Daifuku

13. What's new: Buffer system accumulates totes picked from the AS/RS placing them in correct sequence for final order assembly.

Why it's important: Eliminates worker wait time by pre-positioning totes as they will be needed to complete order.

Supplier: viastore systems

14. Looking for a few good carousels

The first of 10 horizontal carousels have been deployed to the U.S. Marines Camp Fox just outside Kuwait City. The carousel (FKI Logistex White Systems, 908-272-6700) was shipped to Kuwait fully loaded with small maintenance and repair parts in an ocean-going container for rapid deployment to the desert.

"This unit operates as a high-density small parts storage and retrieval system in a field warehouse setup," says Marine Lieutenant Colonel Al Will, project officer with the Marine Forces Atlantic.

The carousel fills the 388 cubic feet of the container it was shipped in. It can either remain in the container for movement to other locations, or be removed and made stationary.

To adapt to field conditions, the carousel can operate at a 15-degree angle. Each storage bin has a 2,000 pound capacity. The unit operates like any other horizontal carousel, rotating the bins and bringing parts to the picker.

"As you can imagine, managing all the small items necessary for the field can be difficult without this type of system," says Will.

15. SPX goes vertical to maximize storage

When SPX Fluid Power decided to consolidate two manufacturing plants making different types of hydraulic equipment, floor space was at a premium. In fact, the company allocated only half of the storage space previously required to store components needed on the manufacturing lines.

To make that work without choking production required SPX to go vertical. Today, four side-by-side, 40-foot tall vertical lift modules (VLMs) store all of the parts from both plants. The VLMs (Remstar, 800-639-5805) store the parts on trays that are positioned on the front and rear of the unit. An inserter/extractor moves trays between storage locations and a picking window.

"All four VLMs automatically cycle every part required for an order," says Chris Feller, senior manufacturing engineer. "The inventory management software (for the VLMs) is integrated with the SPX host business system," he adds. That ensures tight coordination of parts picking and manufacturing schedules.

16. Throughput up 340% with automated returns handling

Getting orders out the door wasn't a problem for Koch Entertainment's Long Island distribution center. But that wasn't the case when it came to handling returns of audio-visual products such as DVDs, videotapes and cassettes. Basically, too many people were handling too few items an hour.

The solution is an order storage and retrieval system (OSR) that automatically handles individual and full-case returned items. The OSR (Knapp, 888-606-0695) has increased returns throughput 340% while reducing labor expenses by just over $1 million in its first year of operation. Break-even for the automated system is 25 months, while the five-year internal rate-of-return is 55%.

The OSR is a single-aisle system with more than 5,100 locations capable of staging 184,000 plus items. Three activities occur simultaneously at the OSR – automatic consolidation and storage of returned items in trays, automatic consolidation of full-case quantities, and automatic picking of single orders.

Returned items are consolidated at workstations on conveyor loops in front of the OSR. When trays are filled, the conveyor delivers them to a buffer system. A shuttle picks up the trays and takes them to a storage location for putaway. The OSR will later be used to pick items from these returned items. Full-case quantities are also built at the workstations prior to delivery to a full-case automated storage and retrieval system.

17. DC within a DC manages toys for retailer

The central distribution center for Germany's Edwin Muller Department Stores may have more than 1 million square feet, but it manages its stock of toys in just 54,000 square feet. This DC within a DC uses a multi-aisle mini-load automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) and a special buffer (viastore, 616-974-8602) to maintain the putaway and picking of toys for the company's 340 stores.

Pallets of toys are manually depalletized into mini-load containers and moved by conveyor to the buffer. Since the storage/retrieval machines are used to both replenish the 24,000 plus storage locations and pick orders, the buffer ensures the most important loads are being moved at any time. Even picked loads pass through the buffer, allowing workers to prioritize stock keeping units needed to fill the most immediate orders. The mini-load's materials handling control system is fully integrated with the DC's materials flow control system to maximize efficiencies.

18. Mini-load upgrade improves efficiency, cuts costs

More storage capacity, higher throughput and new flexibility to handle full cartons were the order of the day at STMicroelectronics. That said, the semiconductor supplier didn't want to change how it was storing and picking orders. Its five-aisle mini-load automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) had been quite effective.

When the company built a new 32,000 square foot DC on its campus in Phoenix, it moved some of the materials handling equipment from its old DC to cut costs. Most prominent of this is one of the five original mini-load storage/retrieval (S/R) machines.

The new system (SK Daifuku, 800-253-1003) has seven aisles, each 37 feet tall. Seventy percent of picks are full cases. To improve handling of ten different size cartons weighing up to 66 pounds, a unique vacuum blower transfer unit was installed. After removal of the carton from the AS/RS, the transfer unit removes each case from a tray for delivery to shipping, greatly improving handling efficiencies at that stage.

19. Hybrid AS/RS keeps the presses running

Having rolls of newsprint weighing up to 3,000 pounds at the ready is what it's all about when the print run starts each day at La Presse, Montreal's leading newspaper.

To ensure that happens, a one-aisle automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) for paper rolls has been installed alongside the newspaper's giant press. The AS/RS (HK Systems, 800-457-9783) is the first of its kind to store paper rolls double deep with the core in the horizontal position, minimizing the system's footprint. The plant is owned and run by Transcontinental Printing, a large Canadian third-party printer.

Before the start of each day's press run, a predetermined quantity of rolls is removed from the 485 location AS/RS and prepped, then returned to storage locations by the system's storage/retrieval (S/R) machine. This extra handling step takes advantage of a slow period during the day, maximizing labor usage. Then as each roll is needed, the S/R machine retrieves and delivers it to a transfer car that brings it to the press.

20. Furniture in stock, ready for delivery

The furniture business is not known for speedy delivery of sofas, chairs and the like. But at Michigan-retailer Art Van, that wasn't acceptable.

The company has installed a four-aisle unit-load automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) that stores and picks all types of furniture for store deliveries. The system (Siemens Dematic, 616-913-7700) is 100 feet tall and 400 feet long with just over 10,000 pallet locations. Loads weighing up to 1,500 pounds can be stored in either of two location sizes – 4 feet x 8 feet x 3.5 feet and 4 feet x 8 feet x 6.25 feet.

During the first shift, furniture is received, bar coded, scanned, loaded onto pallets and putaway in the system. Picking to store orders is done on second and third shifts. Storage/retrieval machines bring pallet loads to picking stations at the front of the system. Workers remove the furniture and place it on carts that are later moved to shipping. The next morning, completed orders are delivered to stores for customer pickup.

21. Tuff Torq's unit load cranks up production

A unit load automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) isn't always associated with manufacturing. But Tuff Torq keeps production of transmissions for lawn and garden equipment on schedule with a three-aisle AS/RS (Murata, 704-394-8331).

Raw materials and components are stored in the AS/RS on bar coded captive pallets. When the day's production schedule is set, it is downloaded to the materials handling control system that manages the AS/RS. Pallet loads are picked and brought forward to one of two order pick stations where workers pick parts. Containers of parts are taken away by conveyor to the shop floor as partial pallet loads are returned to the AS/RS for storage.

Full pallets of parts needed in production bypass the picking stations and are delivered by conveyor to a pickup station. Lift trucks deliver full pallets to the production line.

22. Speedy payback with roaming S/R machines

Typically, an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) has a storage/retrieval (S/R) machine dedicated to each aisle. But it doesn't have to be that way. Just ask general merchandise retailer Fred Meyer.

What the company had was 18 aisles of pallet rack serviced by eight manual picking machines. Unfortunately, costs were high and response slow in the 11-year old system.

The retailer decided to keep the racks but brought in six free-roaming S/R machines (Cleco Systems, an FKI Logistex company). What it got was an automated warehouse with less than a two year payback for the S/R machines. Furthermore, the six S/R machines keep pace with warehouse activity.

Under the guidance of warehouse control software fully integrated with a higher level warehouse management system, the mobile S/R machines pick pallets. When required to move to another aisle, the S/R machine uses wireless communication to navigate from its original location.