Just in time for the peak period, fulfilment specialistActive Ants has moved into its new warehouse in Roosendaal. In the 20,000-square-metre building, 105 robots work side by side with employees.
The subsidiary of the bpost group now also packs thousands of goods for online shops in Roosendaal. The expansion to a new location enables Active Ants to grow in the Netherlands and Belgium.
The new building has a high level of automation. Storage, order picking and sorting are fully automated. For order picking, employees work together with robots. The return flow and receipt of goods remain manual processes. "This mechanisation ensures efficiency, high quality and a pleasant working environment for our employees. The set-up is unique in the world," says Jeroen Dekker, managing partner at Active Ants.
AMRs and shuttle system
65 autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) bring empty boxes to the employee. The latter fills the boxes with goods delivered by other robots. The AMRs then drive to various packing machines that close the boxes to size, weigh and label them for shipping, eliminating the need for padding material and minimising the amount of air carried. Afterwards, the AMRs pick up the closed boxes again and sort them to the respective carriers.
For storage, Active Ants uses the Autostore bin system. Here too, around 40 robots retrieve goods from the system and then take them to employees. The Autostore layout allows Active Ants to store up to six times more stock per square metre. The robots reuse their own energy, which minimises electrical consumption, according to Active Ants.
Personalised packaging
The fulfilment player works with a special sealing machine with a built-in printer, allowing Active Ants to offer its own custom printed box for every customer. "Through this unique functionality, we enable large but now also smaller online shops to carry customised packaging." explains Jean Lahaye, managing partner of Active Ants. "Stocking hundreds of pallets of pre-printed boxes is a thing of the past. This saves our customer costs and also in turn reduces the footprint."
Read also: Corona rush at Active Ants: mobile work-in trolleys to keep distance
Expansion in Belgium and Germany
In spring 2021, Active Ants and parent company bpost plan to expand with a branch in Belgium. Between Mechelen and Antwerp, the company will move into an existing building owned by the bpost group. "I am proud of this new step within our e-commerce logistics business in the Netherlands," said Jean-Paul Van Avermaet, CEO of the bpost group. "It proves not only that we are responding well to the new needs of our customers through the right business transformation but also that we dare to use the very latest technology and innovation on the market to make our mark globally."
