Handling outbound and inbound items
VanRiet’s IQ-Grid automated handling solution is bi-directional, meaning it can be used for build orders and handle returns.
In 1966 TIME magazine stated: “Remote shipping, while entirely feasible, will flop – because women like to get out of the house, like to handle merchandise, like to be able to change their minds.” They couldn’t have been more wrong.
E-commerce is booming and has enabled companies, such as Zalando and Docdata, to become market influencers in just a few years. These companies have overcome logistic challenges, and have managed to organise an efficient and cost-effective parcel flow process within their organisation. An interesting fact here is that the (average) value of each parcel has decreased by an average of 5% annually. This means that the logistic costs per product are becoming an increasingly significant part of the total sales costs. Add to this the fact that the products being shipped, show a greater variation than ever before. Together with the market growth, this creates logistic challenges unseen until now.
The key to success lies in flexibility:
• Your logistic system needs to be able to handle a wide range of product types, from DVD cases to heavy parcels (50kg) and car tires. The more varied types of items your system can handle, the fewer non-conveyables there will be. This increases efficiency, shortens ROI and decreases costly manual labour.
• Your logistic system must be scalable. The amount of investment required to upgrade or downgrade your system, affects your competitiveness. Investing in a scalable sorting solution prevents you from over-investing in a more expensive system, if you don’t have the direct need for the capacity.
• Your logistic system must be flexible if you want it to operate to its full extent. Downtime and unnecessary overcapacity reduce profitability, and even the layout of your system can have an adverse effect.
At VanRiet Material Handling Systems we recognise the need for flexibility and we tailor our products accordingly.
The new IQ-Grid solution is designed to be a scalable, modular, and bi-directional solution. In order to cope with large product varieties, this new solution has a modular design, allowing it to be adjusted to custom product size and weight. It enables you to create a low cost system with a high capacity. Should your company outgrow its current capacity, then the IQ-Grid’s modularity will enable a low cost system expansion.
It also has bi-directional capability. In response to the present-day issue of increasing numbers of returned goods, bi-directional capability enables the complete sorting process to reverse itself. This is designed to maximum system use while minimising manual labor.
