Innovative zone picking system for technical wholesaler Plieger with pick-to-light
Plieger is a leading technical wholesaler of sanitary, heating, electrical and installation products. Plieger’s head office and central distribution centre are based in Zaltbommel, the Netherlands. Plieger supplies some 100,000 articles to installation companies, plumbers, retailers and Do-It-Yourself centres. Plieger operates from more than 50 locations in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.
Vanderlande designed and built a zone picking system for 9,000 different articles in Plieger's central distribution centre. It provides a reliable, accurate and structured order picking process, with short order throughput times. Fast movers are picked from flowracks in 16 zones, supported by Pick-to-Light displays, allowing operators to achieve very high pick rates and high order picking accuracy. Medium movers are picked from 12 Kardex shuttles (6 zones), which are fully integrated into the VISION control system. Slow movers are picked from shelves in 2 zones supported by RF terminals. Order totes and cartons are automatically transported to the required zones by a conveyor system with a capacity of 1,000 totes per hour, where the required products are picked. This reduces walking distances during order picking and eliminates crowded order picking aisles during peak hours.
System and process are managed by Vanderlande's VISION WCS, interfaced with Plieger’s host system. VISION groups and executes orders in an intelligent, well balanced way. It gathers all relevant information concerning the status of processes, orders and the system. It monitors system utilisation and assembles performance and diagnostic data, which can be used for process analyses.
