The best way to increase business without increasing overhead is to work smarter. By using a simple approach to automated storage and retrieval operations, Slakey Brothers of Elk Grove, Calif., has improved order picking efficiency by 400%, while handling a 25% increase in business.

Slakey Brothers, established in 1939, is one of the West Coast's largest distributors of plumbing supplies. To improve distribution capabilities and meet anticipated increases in business, they built a 300,000-square-foot distribution center where it maintains 24,000 active SKUs. It serves 31 wholesale branches and three retail stores in four states. Slakey Brothers also supplies contractors through their local stores, and a fleet of about 100 trucks delivers 90% of the orders within a 200-mile radius.

The DC was designed with high-rise pallet racks to store a range of differently shaped items. Orders were picked from the pallet racks in batches using wire-guided order picking vehicles and lift trucks directed by the company's warehouse management system.

So, the company installed three horizontal carousels integrated as a pod (workstation) and equipped with a pick-to-light system and software. The horizontal carousels are a system of bins and shelves that rotate on a track, delivering stored items to an operator on command.

Slakey Brothers fills about 300 sales orders and 20 warehouse transfers daily from their DC. Since the installation of the horizontal carousel system, productivity has increased from picking 40 lines per hour to between 150 to 160 lines per hour, even with a 25% increase in business. As an added benefit, the system's compact design requires only 1,800 square feet of floor space compared to 4,000 square feet needed by the pallet rack system.

Corporate logistics manager Sean Burke says, “The horizontal carousel system has met our expectations and puts us on track to realize our return on investment in less than two years.”

Remstar International 908-310-2875 www.remstar.com