Pair AS/RS Shuttles With GTP Stations for Throughput and Accuracy Gains

Pair AS/RS Shuttles With GTP Stations for Throughput and Accuracy Gains

Throughput rates and on-time deliveries are critical performance metrics that e-commerce distribution center (DC) operators are always trying to improve upon. But the combination of next- and same-day shipping expectations, rising SKU counts and consistently high order volumes is making it increasingly difficult to meet consumer demands with traditional order fulfillment strategies. Recent advances in automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) shuttles and goods-to-person (GTP) stations from Honeywell Intelligrated are designed to address these growing order fulfillment and inventory management challenges.

Our integrated AS/RS shuttle and GTP solution leverage speed enhancements and key design elements to deliver the throughput rates to match the pace and complexity of modern e-commerce, omnichannel retail and manufacturing operations.

Automate the most inefficient order picking workflows

Traditional person-to-goods picking processes require workers to travel throughout picking zones to build orders. Manual retrieval is both inefficient and costly; foot travel alone can take up to half of a picker’s total time. Using this method, even the most efficient operations struggle to achieve the required throughput rates needed to meet their customer service level agreements (SLAs).

AS/RS shuttles with integrated GTP stations resolve this dilemma. Instead of workers traveling long distances through pick modules or even driving forklifts across a DC, an AS/RS shuttle pulls totes from multi-aisle and multi-level storage racks, routes goods to vertical lifts and conveyors, and delivers them to workers at designated GTP stations. Ergonomically designed to support top-down, pick-and-place workflows, these plug-and-play GTP stations enable high-speed, scalable order fulfillment capabilities. Using this method, pickers can remain in a single location and simply pull from totes to efficiently build and pack out customer orders.

Honeywell Intelligrated has engineered our AS/RS shuttles and GTP stations with key features designed to maximize their inherent efficiencies and deliver next-generation performance.

• Shuttle speed — At travel rates up to 5 m/s, our shuttles can retrieve and deliver totes to GTP stations or vertical lifts at a breathtaking clip.
• Lift height and speed — With vertical lifts that span more than 60 feet and travel at 5 m/s, storage racks can be designed to maximize the vertical space in your warehouse while ensuring fast and reliable handling of cases and/or totes.
• Intra-aisle lift configurations — The ability to configure vertical lifts in the middle of storage aisles provides configuration flexibility, especially in space-constrained facilities or brownfield applications.
• GTP station integration — Delivering totes of ever-expanding SKUs directly to GTP stations significantly streamlines the fulfillment of single- and multi-line orders. Our solution includes four GTP stations with options to add up to six additional stations.
• Replenish inventory/decant — Keeping high-volume inventory stocked and at the ready requires the ability to efficiently replenish AS/RS storage. We also integrate decanting stations to make this process reliable and efficient.
• Chilled aisle option — The expanding role of e-commerce in the grocery sector requires the option to keep perishable goods at chilled temperatures. Our solutions are rated to withstand temperatures from 34–100 °F.
• Multi-function flexibility — Our AS/RS shuttles can be configured for a full omnichannel retail fulfillment solution, providing traditional case buffer and storage for retail store replenishment and GTP order fulfillment for e-commerce.

Raise your operational intelligence

A key enabler of Honeywell Intelligrated’s AS/RS shuttle and GTP solution is the seamless integration with the Momentum warehouse execution system (WES). Empowered by the Decision Intelligence data science engine, Momentum precisely orchestrates the movement of totes within the AS/RS, provides smart allocation and GTP station assignment, and enables dynamic storage capabilities that match available space with incoming inventory size and shape attributes.

Momentum WES with Decision Intelligence evaluates incoming e-commerce and store replenishment orders and determines the most optimal sequencing and buffering within the AS/RS. Orders are intelligently queued and released — considering storage locations, GTP station availability, travel routes and order priorities — to ensure fast, accurate and efficient fulfillment workflows. This continuous optimization results in high throughput rates, increased resource utilization and maximum order fulfillment efficiency.

Regardless of your operation’s size, order cycle times or physical footprint, Honeywell Intelligrated can configure a solution that will help you to maximize space utilization and achieve significant throughput, accuracy and inventory management gains. To learn how our AS/RS shuttle and GTP solution can help you to meet today’s retail fulfillment demands, read our latest On The Move article.

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