Hybrid System: Selector Pro/Voice & Loader Pro/Wearable

Combining SAE’s Selector Pro Voice and Loader Pro systems, the Index technology solution automates, directs and manages both warehouses in real time. The system incorporates Motorola wireless terminals with built-in barcode scanners and runs on SAE’s integrated software platform.

• Selector Pro/Voice directs picking activities by transmitting audio instructions to selectors regarding location, item and quantities to pick. Selectors use spoken replies and read off check digits at the product slot and quantities to verify each of their picks. System software notifies the Index Warehouse Management System to adjust inventory accordingly. Selector Pro/Voice also directs put-away, let-downs and replenishment of picking bins.
• Loader Pro manages the handling of completed orders from staging areas to the outbound side of the warehouse and onto their assigned trailers. The system transmits complete loading instructions to the wearable computer worn by each loader. By scanning the order’s barcode ID and the corresponding barcode for the zone where that order is loaded on the trailer, delivery errors are virtually eliminated.

With SAE technology directing order-handling and replenishment processes end-to-end across two distinct warehouse operations, Index has maximized throughput, eliminated order errors and increased employee productivity as much as 50%.

SAE Selector Pro enables UK retail chain to slash overhead and revitalize its brand.

UK retail powerhouse Littlewoods launched Index, a catalog store concept, in 1985. By 2002, Index had expanded to 164 locations, an online sales channel and three regional distribution centers. Despite the brand’s growth, the long-term viability of the Index business model was in doubt as a result of higher operating costs and increasing pressure from discount chains and online sales channels. Only with a radical restructuring of operations could Index lower its costs sufficiently to remain competitive and preserve the value of the brand asset.

Central to the turnaround strategy was the decision to cut the number of distribution centers from three to two. The results would require each remaining warehouse to increase its volume by 50%, without adding significant numbers of personnel. The core business objective was to manage the DCs as two halves of an integrated whole, despite the significant differences between their operations. SAE and Motorola were tapped to take on the company’s daunting productivity challenge. Among the critical operating targets were:

    Elimination of picking errors
    Reduction of store delivery errors, shorts, overstocks and returns
    Support of cross-docking between the two DC’s to eliminate redundant delivery routes
  
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