Case Story / COOP Distribution / Logistics

Switzerland’s COOP drives down its order picking costs with Pick-n-Go from TMHE

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Context & challenges The COOP is one of Switzerland’s leading daily goods suppliers, employing over 50,000 people across 800 sites. Its Aclens distribution centre near Lausanne supplies 200 stores in the French-speaking part of the country.

With a logistics operation on this scale the COOP is al-ways looking for ways to improve its processes in order to reduce costs and increase quality.

Solutions As part of the programme the COOP has recently invested in a new semi-automated order picking system from Toyota Material Handing Europe called Pick-n-Go.

Pick-n-Go integrates their existing warehouse manage-ment system with a new fleet of laser-guided trucks and their operators using ‘pick-by-voice’ headsets. The trucks work alongside the operators, leaving them free to concen-trate on picking while the trucks take care of the driving.

Sebastien Jacquet, COOP’s Logistics Director, explains: “The first advantage we saw is a productivity increase. The operator can focus on the main job, which is picking the orders. There has also been an increase in safety for our pickers. The trucks are very safe, with no more ac-cidents involving people and goods. And another benefit is the improvement in ergonomics for our pickers with automatic height adjustment and ‘pick-by-voice’ control.”

TMHE’s Pick-n-Go means that an operator is not required for the processes of fetching empty roll cages and de-positing them at the despatch area – this is performed automatically by the trucks. This has led to a significant increase in truck availability, with machines typically be-ing in the aisles for picking 80% of the time, up from 70% before the implementation of Pick-n-Go.

Sylvain Galé, responsible dairy operations, comments: “The picker doesn’t perform certain tasks he used to do before such as going on and off the truck, manually driv- manually driv-manually driv-ing the truck, and finding a location. …

Facts & figures

Swiss COOP

— Employs 50,000 people

— Aclens distribution centre supplies 200 stores with 40,000 product lines on 12,000 roll cages a day

— Order picking performed with 15 BT Autopilot SAE200 semi-automatic pallet trucks

Results

— Average pick rate up by 20%

— Overall output rate up by 40%

— Return on investment expected within 5 years

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“… All those operations aren’t necessary anymore. We noted that by eliminating these operations, as the truck drives automatically, that the operator’s performance – the pick rate – increased significantly. We’ve seen an in-crease of 20% in total from 280 to 300 items per hour to currently between 340 and 350.”

This increase in picking productivity and net picking time adds up to a growth in output of some 40%.

The Autpilot trucks move from the day shift at the dairy warehouse to the fruit and vegetable section for the eve-ning and night shifts.

When COOP analysed its order picking operations it noti-ced some problem areas. For example, the fruit and veg-etable section was often congested due to a combination of relatively narrow aisles and a high number of trucks.

Sebastien Jacquet, explains the solution: “The major change in this section has been the picking configura-tion. We used to work in a Z pattern, which means the machine stops, the operator goes on the right side then on the left side. We have decided together with Toyota to implement a one-sided picking technique. This has im-mediately led to a smoother flow in this section.”

Damage reduction is another measurable benefit from the Pick-n-Go system, and the guidance and safety sys-tems are proving extremely effective.

“Thanks to the Autopilot trucks we noticed a decrease in damage because they adapt their speed to the environ-ment – and their sensors ensure they stop automatically if they detect an obstacle.”

Automated handling systems are sometimes perceived to have negative consequences in two key areas: staff

and operational flexibility. On the first point, the COOP is confident that its order picking operators prefer the new system. In fact, when the opportunity arises, they don’t want to go back to the old way of working.

As for the ability of the system to cope with changes in the business, Sebastien Jacquet is also confident: “This system allows a certain flexibility. If tomorrow we want to have more or fewer trucks, and if we want to change the layout we can do it with this system. And the trucks can always be taken over manually if necessary, to guaran-tee continuous picking.

“We are satisfied with Pick-n-Go and we are assessing the possibility of implementing it at our Bern distribu-tion centre and also in a new site that we are planning. The new system is better ergonomically, which is very important for sustainable development and for the key social goals of our company.”