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Efficient material flows in times of e-commerce

In times where online retailing is constantly growing, the delivery promises of suppliers are becoming increasingly important. Customers expect their order to arrive in time, as ordered, and at the correct destination. If these requirements are not met, customers can choose to simply change suppliers, and often also even share their dissatisfaction on social media. High reliability requires efficient intralogistics, from warehousing to sortation and transportation. Intralogistics need to be versatile, capable of managing complexity while increasing their efficiency. BEUMER Group supports online retailers and shipping providers with competence and with efficient sortation and conveying technology.

Online shopping continues to grow in popularity. It's easy, quick and simple. Buyers appreciate the convenience and flexibility. Online stores don't have set operating hours, so the customer can shop at any time from any place, computer, tablet computer or smartphone, provided they have internet access. Once the products arrive at home, you can test them out, and, if not satisfied, just send them back. E-commerce is primarily used for selling books, audio/video devices, clothing and shoes, consumer electronics or computers.

In 2014, turnover of German companies in this industry totalled 66.5 billion EUR. This year's estimates are up to 90.5 billion. The market is growing by 20 per cent every year. However, this also leads to cut-throat competition among online retailers. The most successful e-commerce companies are those who can provide a wide range of products and the necessary reliability. This, however, increases the expectations of a limitless supply of goods at low cost and with immediate and fault-free delivery.

How to fulfil customer expectations

In order to stay competitive as an online retailer and reach new audiences, you have to look towards new trends. This includes individual delivery times and same day delivery, whereby the customers order and receive products on the same day. This option may to finally bring e-commerce on the same product availability level of local retailing. This special type of express delivery however only covers certain regions, depending on where the online store is based. It is offered within the urban logistics of large cities and is more expensive than regular delivery. Even though there is a high demand for this in the industry, only few retailers offer it as a delivery option. In typical e-commerce orders, deliveries are often atomised. The customer orders more often, sometimes several times a day, and in smaller quantities. This leads to smaller, but more frequent deliveries, which is very challenging for the manufacturers of intralogistic systems and for operational logistics.

Finding the perfect intralogistic solution is crucial

Overall, as the material distribution technology becomes more complex, intralogistic equipment and systems are required to be more flexible in order to handle different tasks and be able to adapt to changing local conditions. Highly efficient processes are therefore necessary to ensure quick delivery of packages to the customer. Tracking and tracing of deliveries is becoming more important as well. Delivery status can be tracked, allowing the customer to determine the current location of their package and its estimated arrival time.

As a system integrator, BEUMER Group supports its customers from planning through commissioning, to ensure fast, safe and fault-free sortation, distribution and control of very different goods such as parcels, bags and bulk goods. Our product base includes modular high-speed sortation systems that give the users a competitive advantage and prepare them for future growth in their own mail-order business.

Concept of an order-picking system

BEUMER Group has already realised numerous projects in cooperation with partners from the intralogistics sector. Shuttle warehouses with a storing and taking out frequency of more than 10,000 units per hour are best suited for handling receptacles and cartons for A, B and C items with high availability. When handling small parts automatically, these storage solutions are well-established for these applications and are particularly suited for fast growing companies that store different types of products. A cross-belt sorter ensures the connection between goods receipt department, the shuttle warehouse, the order-picking stations and the goods issuing department. This sorter solution achieves a high distribution rate of more than 10,000 receptacles per hour. Besides distributing receptacles and cartons, cross-belt sorters are ideal for the gentle handling of all types of products, regardless of their size, shape or surface characteristics. These characteristics help meet the specific requirements of mail-order businesses. Due to contactless energy supply and data transmission, the BEUMER Belt Tray Sorter requires little maintenance. Its modular structure permits adaptation into existing buildings without any loss of performance.

The cross-belt sorter consists of several mobile flat belt conveyors. They are arranged perpendicular to the direction of run of the belt. This allows the transported items to be fed or discharged either to the right or to the left of the direction of run of the belt. The products are fed onto the cross belt at a speed adjusted to the sorter speed and the angle of induction. For the discharging process, the conveyor belt moves towards the discharge and the item is guided gently into the destination.

Placing great emphasis on sustainability

BEUMER Group equips the sorter with modules for order-picking stations. Additional sensor technology is often installed to detect and eliminate potential errors and increase the successful sortation rate. Safe and reliable sorting processes are guaranteed at all times. Complete order containers are automatically moved to the goods issuing department, while incomplete order containers from each module are moved back to the shuttle warehouse and empty containers go back to the goods receipt department to be filled again.

The delivery from the goods issuing department to your doorstep, or to the collection boxes, is usually ensured by service providers. They provide a comprehensive network of sortation centres, offices and delivery service. Their systems are primarily aimed towards the traditional package range. The fact that delivery quantities are increasing and delivery sizes decreasing at the same time usually leads to their capacity being exhausted. Delivery windows are becoming increasingly more narrow and sortation periods shorter. In order for the service providers to meet the requirements of e-commerce, they have to increase their capacities.

From manual to machine-aided unloading

The capacity in existing buildings can be increased by replacing manual unloading with machine-aided bulk unloading. This enables much higher throughput per gate. BEUMER Group has brought the first generation of semi-automatic machines to the market, the BEUMER Parcel Picker. It relieves the physical burden of the employees, and at the same time increases productivity. The personnel working for postal operators and CEP companies can use it to unload packages, parcels and delivery units of different sizes and weights from swap bodies and trailers at a high capacity. The unloading capacity increases with smaller deliveries.

For the bulk stream to be efficiently processed, the packages need to be automatically separated. This is why BEUMER Group has developed the Automatic Parcel Singulator, which is matched to the discontinuous mode of operation of a loop sorter induction unit. It has a compact design and its required capacity is adapted to requirements of the induction unit. Its operation is low in noise and in maintenance. A typical application proposes two BEUMER Parcel Pickers that supply one Automatic Parcel Singulator. The result of the separation is monitored by an image sensor. Correctly separated packages arrive at the sorter via a discharge unit, whereas incorrectly separated deliveries are automatically returned to the Automatic Parcel Singulator.