In the future, everything in e-fulfilment will be automated. From inbound logistics to order picking, order packing and return processing. So argues Jeroen Dekker, owner of fulfilment company Active Ants.
During the E-fulfilment & Logistics event, Dekker expressed his expectation that humans will only play a minor role in the warehouse of the future. "Almost everything can be automated. Very little human intervention will still be needed in the warehouse."
Active Ants itself, which provides fulfilment for 90 web shops from its warehouse in Nieuwegein, has already taken a big step in automating its logistics processes. Since last year, the fulfilment partner has been using a goods-to-man system: AutoStore. This system consists of robots that drive over an aluminium framework and bring the totes of articles stored in it to the order picking stations "The order picker used to spend 55 per cent of his time walking to goods. Now the product comes to the order picker." AutoStore's 16 robots have now been running for more than a year. Active Ants is now scaling up. "We have now reordered eight robots and 20,000 totes. This will hopefully allow us to handle the peak for the busy December month. We can further increase the machine's capacity by running it at night as well."
Recently, it also added an automatic packing machine to its fulfilment. The 'CartonWrap' not only packs orders to size, but also prints the logo of ninety online shops on it. "This saves us a lot of time in addition to a lot of packaging material - instead of thirty parcels per hour, we now pack around 1,000," he says.
Editorial LogistiekProfs
Image: Active Ants
