Keeping the shelves stocked

PROVIDING UP to 50% more storage capacity than traditional racking on the same footprint, a Pallet Live Storage (PLS) system can contribute significantly to accommodating sufficient stock to meet growing demand from a grocery retailer’s customers. 

Supporting a retailer’s need to maintain customer service in tandem with achieving sales growth is one of the biggest challenges placed on a DC, particularly when it comes to handling the sheer volumes involved and fast turnaround required by everyday bulk stock lines, such as soft drinks.

The traditional storage format in grocery DCs is standard pallet racking offering ground floor and first level picking with multiple levels of bays above. It is not unusual in particularly crowded DCs to find bulk stock items that are continually fed to stores being located on the DC floor. These configurations allow a DC to carry out case picking and give it the opportunity to take a pallet and ship it directly to a store. For smaller stores with a lower turnover, they might ship a half pallet. 

However, for those grocery DCs that need greater flexibility to meet a variety of demands from customers within a limited space, PLS offers an ideal solution. It provides a dense storage and order picking system that contributes to innovative, efficient and agile grocery logistics operations. On a relatively small footprint, pallets can be located ‘in the air’ on several levels of inclined roller lanes, with delivery lanes for pallet loads of bulk stock lines – such as soft drinks – on the ground floor. This provides dense storage and rapid access to orders.

There are many innovative design variations that can be added to suit specific needs. For example, instead of using pallet racking uprights, the pallet live flow lanes could be constructed above a mezzanine structure, which could itself accommodate a number of bulk delivery lanes between each column on the ground floor for easy and rapid access. Introducing a such a solid structure for the ground lane gives added protection against the powerful and heavy lift trucks used in a DC.

Reach trucks can be used to place pallets delivered from Goods In on the upper levels of the PLS. Entering the rear of the lane, the pallets move down the roller lanes to provide a continuous feed of product for the pick face on the aisle at the front of the lane. Systems can accommodate traditional pallets, Euro-pallets handled short-sided and half pallets handled long-sided.

The flexibility in such a design allows products that need to be sent immediately to stores to be picked directly from the flow lane and transported to Goods Out. If the ground floor delivery lanes are getting close to empty, then stock stored in the lanes above can be brought down and pushed through to the other side of the lane for order pickers to continue their pick.

The space efficiency such a system delivers makes the investment well worth it, giving a DC the capacity to stock items in sufficient quantities to avoid running out – even during peaks.

In addition to being an efficient storage method, PLS operates on the FIFO (First In First Out) principle, ensuring the product rotation that is important for grocery store replenishment: pickers always get the first product sorted by the ‘best before’ date. 

Edward Hutchison, managing director, BITO Storage Systems

For more information, visit www.bito.com