Toll puts automation to work down under

摘要

Toll's new 550,000-square-foot, multi-channel distribution center in Sydney, Australia, has some familiar technologies for a facility that was purpose built for both store replenishment and e-fulfill-ment. That includes a 113,000-square-foot mezzanine with two dozen goods-to-person workstations powered by a shuttle system. The facility went live about two years ago, in December 2017. But, look closer, and you'll notice something you don't normally associate with e-commerce fulfillment or each picking for an apparel retailer: automatic guided vehicles (Dematic, dematic.com). Underneath the order fulfillment mezzanine, a fleet of six automatic guided vehicles shuttles two pallets at a time some 1,000 feet from the very narrow aisle reserve storage area to a drop-off location in the decant area. There, where product is prepped for putaway in the shuttle system fulfillment engine, four single pallet AGVs retrieve the pallets from two different drop-off locations and load them onto the work area for associates.