The Staples distribution center in Chambersburg, Pa., operates like no other DC in the world. Instead of miles of conveyor or flocks of order pickers, the facility employs 200 small robots to carry products through the orderpicking process. (See “Staples’ robotic retrievers.”)

Operations in the DC—which fills online and catalog orders for paper clips, toner cartridges and other office supplies—begin in the usual way: Inbound shipments arrive at the receiving docks, and mixed pallets are broken down and re-palletized by stock keeping unit (SKU).

Each product is given a colored bar code label and is scanned to receive it into the warehouse management system (WMS).

The WMS directs lift truck drivers to putaway pallets of product into conventional pallet rack in reserve storage.

The WMS also directs replenishment, based on a min/max system. As forward storage locations reach their minimums and need replenishment, the WMS directs lift truck drivers to move products from reserve storage to one of five replenishment stations.

This is where things get interesting.

When a case arrives at a replenishment station, the employee in the station scans the colored bar code label on the case. This triggers a robot to retrieve a shelving pod from the forward storage area and deliver it to the replenishment station.

When the shelving pod arrives, the employee opens the case, removes any excess dunnage and places the case in the pod. The robot then returns the shelving pod to forward storage. (For more on this process, see “How Staples does replenishment")

Meanwhile, the software that directs replenishment is also directing order picking on the other side of the DC.

An order begins when a computer screen in a picking station instructs an order picker to construct a box. A printer in the station then prints a shipping label, which the picker places on the outside of the box.

While the picker is preparing the box, robots in the forward storage area retrieve shelving pods that hold the products that are needed for the order.

When the shelving pods arrive at the picking station, the employee picks the appropriate products, scans them to confirm the accuracy of her picks and places them in the box. (For more on this process, see “How Staples does picking.")

When the order is complete, the picker places the full box onto takeaway conveyor. At this point, the DC reverts back to conventional distribution techniques.

The conveyor carries the order to a quality control station where the WMS directs an employee to confirm the number of items in the box. If the quantity is correct, the employee prints a packing slip and places it in the box.

The conveyor then carries the box to a packing station and then to the shipping area where boxes are hand palletized and manually stretchwrapped.

Pallets leave the docks in full truckloads bound for another Staples facility where orders are consolidated for delivery.

Staples