Third party logistics operator DSV has implemented a warehouse automation solution at its distribution centre in the Netherlands that has increased output by 300 per cent without needing additional personnel.
The omnichannel fulfilment solution from KNAPP has transformed the company’s existing 60,000 m² warehouse in Venlo, enabling DSV to process fashion and sports orders rapidly and efficiently for a well-known sports goods manufacturer.
Same-day and next-day delivery
On an average day, around 10,000 orders and 100,000 items are shipped to retail, wholesale and online customers across Europe from the facility with same-day and next-day service levels. The solution provides a high degree of flexibility to handle the peaks typical of the fashion sector, while also ensuring sustainability through an automated carton-closing system to optimise shipping volumes.
Goods entering the warehouse are repacked in containers or cartons at the 14 decanting stations, with some being stored on pallets in high-bay racking. The heart of the system at Venlo is KNAPP’s Evo Shuttle, a small parts warehouse with over 257,000 locations for plastic containers and cartons, which are stored triple deep in the 19-level store. A total of 361 shuttles operate within the system, retrieving items on demand and conveying them to the picking stations.
Volume-optimised shipping
Fulfilment is carried out at one of 16 goods-to-person workstations from KNAPP’s Pick-it-Easy series, where orders are assembled directly into shipping cartons supplied by an automatic carton erector. There are a further 28 workstations for value-added services and manual packing. After order assembly and before being conveyed to the 14 shipping ramps, the height of each shipping carton is adjusted to suit its contents and a shipping label is applied in a process that is completely automated.
Warehouse Automation
In addition to storage, retrieval and picking, the Evo Shuttle store takes care of order buffering and sequencing of completed orders. The whole solution is controlled by KNAPP’s KiSoft software, which interfaces with DSV’s inventory control system to ensure that all processes run smoothly and without errors. This software combination takes care of the entire flow of goods in real time, inventory management, all the product master data, order release, quality checking and document insertion. DSV also chose to have a resident service contract with KNAPP, so that engineers are permanently on site to ensure maximum system uptime. See the solution in action here.
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