TVH Forklift Parts is Europe's largest independent distributor of fork lift trucks and components. Vanderlande Industries supplied the complete material handling system.

In the facility, TVH stocks 450,000 SKUs from which it meets an average of 4,000 orders and 13,000 order lines per day. The system contains six miniloads with 52,000 storage locations. The miniloads store medium moving products. For picking, totes are conveyed to special workstations. Totes which are not picked empty are returned to storage. On one side of the aisle the crane supplies flowlanes with faster moving products. Order lines for an order are picked in parallel. Operators receive picking instructions via an RF-system. Empty totes are taken from the tote loop and the required products are picked. Totes are put on the conveyor system and routed to the consolidation area.

Eight miniloads are used as a consolidation buffer. There are 720 positions for orders in progress. When an order is complete the packer at the end of the flowlanes takes the totes, packs the product and puts the empty totes (as stacks of max 4 totes) on the takeway conveyor.

Thanks to the high level of automation in order processing, order lead times have been shortened significantly and orders can now be based on actual customer demand. In addition, the new system has reduced manpower levels and improved picking accuracy.

Key characteristics:

• Number of SKUs: 450,000
• Miniload for storage: 6
• Number of storage locations: 52,000
• Miniloads for consolidation: 8
• Order lines per day: 13,000 (50% between 14:00h and 17:00h)
• Orders per day: 4,000
• System throughput: 2,500 totes and 1,000 cartons per hour