Office Depot varies storage for efficient new DC
May 18th 2006

A move to larger premises caused by business expansion gave office products leader, Office Depot, the opportunity to implement the most efficient of warehouse operations. The challenge was over 9,000 products from office furniture and large laser printers to pencils, with a wide variety of demand levels. The answer proved to be Bito live storage.

In the new distribution centre near Manchester, most of the picking is split into a series of picking loops designed to handle various sizes of customer cartons, linked by a main conveyor. Each of the loops is designed for a particular type of product and based on the pick frequency of the items.

All picking takes place from either carton live or pallet live storage provided by Bito Storage Systems. Manual picking from the live storage is directed by pick by light system and takes place into the customer cartons.

The automated picking machine used for faster moving items such as inkjet printer cartridges is loaded manually from Bito carton live storage. Fullcase pick to belt is from 2 or 3 deep Bito pallet live storage.

“We have worked with Bito before at our distribution centres in Hamburg, Madrid and Lenzberg. They have become our preferred supplier for live storage based on quality, service and cost.” Bernd Schiel of Office Depot is happy with the Bito live storage installation; “We like how solid it is, and the installers themselves praise how easy it is to assemble. The carton live is totally boltless and can easily be fitted to other companies racking.”

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