A High-throughput Solution for e-Commerce Operations

The holiday season has come and gone, and early returns pointed to prosperity. But this also meant increased challenges for e-commerce fulfillment operations.

The National Retail Federation predicted an online sales increase between 7 and 10 percent this holiday season, and that 56.5 percent of holiday shopping would occur online. Now more than ever, holiday shoppers consider shipping as a factor when choosing retailers, and it all happens in crunch time, primarily between November and December. 

Applications for peak season and beyond

Goods-to-operator (GTO) order fulfillment is a workflow that relies on automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) to retrieve product in preparation for picking processes. 

This system allows facilities to house higher storage volumes and handle them with increased efficiency. This effectively raises fulfillment capacity, offering a solution for operations with 250 orders per hour or more. With enough space, shuttle-based GTO systems can scale up to handle increased volumes as operations grow.

Part of this scalability comes from individual GTO stations that can be activated or left offline based on demand. So for example, an e-commerce operation could scale higher for more orders during the holiday peak, but then scale back once the rush is over.

Resilient and flexible

Using shuttles as the AS/RS technology for a GTO system offers resiliency and reduced risk of unplanned downtime. If a shuttle goes down, the whole system is not in jeopardy because another shuttle can assume the workload.

Flexible configurations can accommodate a variety of workflows such as batch picking, discrete picking and even picking from both ends of the shuttle system. 

From seasonal peaks to sustained demand increases, this flexibility allows operations to adopt the most efficient workflows to meet throughput requirements. 

Get up to speed

For more information, read the full white paper, Conquer high-volume e-commerce with goods-to-operator order fulfillment. Learn more about Intelligrated's AS/RS solutions.

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