High Storage Density Solutions in the Footwear Industry

Posted by Manas Medisetty on Jul 14, 2022 12:51:20 AM

In warehousing operations for footwear companies, the two most important considerations are high storage density and high efficiency.  Sky Storage & Ground Pick, Geek+'s one-stop four-way shuttle solution, provides a solution for both.


0-2

2-Jul-01-2022-07-48-24-29-AM

  • High density: At the same shelf height, the storage density is 60% higher than that of traditional very narrow aisle (VNA) shelves

    High efficiency: Picking efficiency is 2-3 times that of manual efficiency; with full-pallet picking, the more orders there are, the higher the picking efficiency

    High flexibility: It can flexibly match fluctuating production capacity and orders by rapidly adding or removing robots

    Saving labor costs: Automatic shelf placement, automatic replenishment, and automated goods-to-person picking allows employees to focus on value-added tasks

  •  

Footwear warehousing challenges

    • High requirements for storage capacity: Compared to other items in the apparel industry, footwear is bulky; therefore, the storage of the same quantity of footwear requires a higher storage capacity

    Low picking efficiency: Manual picking selects one pair at a time with one hand, leading to low efficiency

    Replenishment timeliness: Stores have limited storage capacity, frequent replenishment, and new updates, and have high requirements for timeliness

    Flexibility requirements: When footwear seasons change or special promotions are done, demand fluctuates greatly, so flexibility is a must

  •  

Whitepaper download

Storage and efficiency are difficult to balance

Traditional solutions have problems such as low picking efficiency, low storage density, difficult expansion, and insufficient flexibility, meaning they cannot meet customers’ needs.

 

Picking on ordinary heavy-duty shelf

Picking on VNA heavy-duty racks

Risk

Shelving and picking are cross-operated, with high safety risks

The VNA channel is narrow, the forklift operation requires high certifications, and there are operational risks

Capacity

Wide forklift aisle, single-depth storage, low storage density

The storage density of the whole pallet is higher, and the storage density of the whole box is lower

Labor

There is a lot of labor input in each step, and professional forklift workers are required

High labor requirements, VNA forklift operators with professional certificates are required, and it is difficult to recruit

Efficiency

The whole pallet and piece picking are operated at the same time, which affects each other and reduces the efficiency;

Piece picking requires walking long distances, and the picking efficiency is low

The equipment operation requires high precision, the operation takes a long time, and the efficiency is low.

Flexibility

It is difficult to rapidly expand the storage capacity, and the upper limit of picking capacity is low, making it difficult to increase

VNA layout has very specific on-site requirements, high requirements, complicated construction and a long implementation period

Download Brochure

Geek+ One-stop Four-way Shuttle Solution

Adaptable to business scenariosNew call-to-action

1.  B2B scenarios


2. B2B and B2C in the same warehouse


Suitable storage forms

* Whole pallet storage,

* Whole case storage, and

* Piece storage

 

Solution process
12-Jul-01-2022-08-48-10-49-AM

01 Putaway: Allocate place, automatic putaway.


02 Storage: Multi-type, multi-strategy storage.



03 Order dispatch: Automatic picking task allocation.


04 Location hit: Multi-strategy smart location hit.

05 Goods-to-Person (G2P) Picking: Smart picking indications and dispatch to picking wall.


06 Shelf return: Multi-strategy intelligent shelf returns.

 

Restocking process

01 Replenishment tasks issued by the system15-1

02 Four-way shuttle system automatic outbound

03 Automatic replenishment of the whole pallet to the G2P area

04 Necessary replenishment picking

05 Unfinished pallets are returned to the four-way shuttle area for storage

06 Manual replenishment to the goods-to-person area

6-Jul-01-2022-07-48-51-84-AM

 

Practical Experience

Geek+ has over 6 years’ practical experience in the apparel industry, is trusted by many industry leaders, and has successfully achieved global expansion through project replication. Its full range of robots can be adopted into a variety of integrated schemes, covering various scenarios in the apparel industry.

Case Study

case study

10-Jul-01-2022-07-49-10-06-AM

Through continuous activity in the apparel industry, Geek+ is accumulating greater understanding and field experience to empower even more apparel customers to achieve intelligent upgrading and transformation.

Download Brochure

Parameters:parametersGet a Free 30-min ConsultationDownload Brochure

Topics: Automation, SupplyChain, Nike, Autonomous Mobile Robots, fulfillment, AMR, Sorting, Supply Chain, Green Logistics, Download, Retail, Labor, Shortage, Efficiency, Scalability, Third-Party Logistics, Infrastructure, Returns, Apparel, Apparel returns, Decathlon, Footwear, shoes