Snap to Light trolley boosts efficiency

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) WMS provider Snapfulfil has launched the Snap-To-Light picking solution.

Pick to Light is often used by the largest and busiest warehouses, but the costs of acquisition and ownership have previously been barriers to access for smaller businesses, the ROI didn’t stack up.

To help with this, Snapfulfil it has adapted its ‘No Capex’ WMS business model for its Pick to Light Trolley, allowing SMEs to access to this powerful picking solution via a monthly subscription.

Snapfulfil commercial director Gavin Clark, explains: "With the recent additions to our client base in the e-commerce arena, it is important that we continue to create faster and smarter ways for our clients to pick their orders.

"Snap-To-Light uses a robust lighting harness and has been designed to enhance the power of the Snapfulfil SaaS WMS with a ‘Pick to Light’ (PTL) trolley that drives the warehouse operatives on the shortest walk sequence, picking multiple orders in a single pass and increasing accuracy.” 

Customer order fulfilment is the life blood of any busy warehouse operation and where these orders are mainly items, often a split between single items and multiple line orders, the physical process of picking these orders in a streamlined and efficient way without a WMS has always been a real challenge.

Snapfulfil looked at the needs of the picking teams and has taken some bold design steps to provide the easiest to use system possible.

Snap-To-Light benefits include:

• Picking multiple orders at one time, driving efficiency, shortening walking distances and saving time.

• Variable picking totes or shipping cartons are utilised for variable order sizes, all controlled by the WMS based on each shipment’s dimensions / volume.

• Different sized trolleys can be used, for the ‘heavyweight’ shippers.

• PTL harness can be retro fitted to existing trolleys, meaning existing investments can be utilised.

• Lightweight and rapid charge Lithium Ion battery technology is used, not the heavy Lead-Acid power packs from the automotive industry, often used in more traditional trolleys.

• Pick and Pass or Multi Zone picking functions allow the use of multiple trolleys to pick from different areas of the warehouse, all with full visibility and control at each stage.

Clark continues: "Because of our speed-to-value and low cost of ownership, more companies are choosing the Snapfulfil WMS to support strategic distribution initiatives like e-commerce. These types of business not only require a highly adaptable WMS  to support high-volume, but they can now add the PTL trolley to allow ‘hands free’ picking and highly visible stock deposits into picking cartons/totes quickly and cost effectively. 

"Having a WMS that will drive operatives around the warehouse in the most efficient sequence has always been the main goal, but the physical process of the picking the important sales items was often ignored as barcode scanners were essential to increase accuracy.”