Storage/Staging: Danish e-commerce company automates order fulfillment

The Danish town of Esberg is home to NiceHair.dk, an online retailer of hair products, cosmetics and accessories for women. Started as a home business in 2008, the company has enjoyed steady double-digit growth rates and now distributes 10,000 different brand name products with a staff of 40 people. The company now uses vertical carousels to manage 70,000 SKUs in 388 square feet.

“We wanted to simplify our processes,” says Lasse Bendixen Andersen, partner. “Our criteria were to speed up order picking, save storage space and create more ergonomic workspaces.”

The new automated vertical carousels have consolidated around 80% of the company’s SKUs into six units supported by software-assisted storage strategies such as “put-to-fill.” New SKUs are stored in places where similar SKUs are already stored, and the system easily manages a 2% order return rate. If something is sent back, it is returned to the vertical carousels.

The facility’s warehouse management system (WMS) directs the order picking process. The carousels operate on the goods-to-person principle, rotating to deliver all items directly to the operator. Integrating the vertical carousel with WMS software forces carousel to rotate to the shortest path to the access opening at all times.

The carousels are integrated with light-directed picking technology, which is also coordinated by the WMS to direct the operator to the exact location and quantity to pick, increasing productivity by 150%. The company can now fill 6,000 order lines in one shift, and 90% of orders are delivered the following day if ordered by 3 p.m.

Kardex Remstar
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kardexremstar.com