Horizontal Carousels are a series of bins with shelves that are supported by an oval track. The bins rotate bi-directionally via the shortest path. The shelves are easily adjustable to resize changing inventory. Likewise, bins can be used to handle items such as: hanging garments, guns, rolled goods, cans, drums, tooling, jigs, totes, boxes and much more. Horizontal Carousels provide a very efficient and cost-effective Goods-to-Person (G2P) or Goods-to-Man (G2M) System.
Pod: Multiple Horizontal Carousels are used in a single workstation called a “pod.” Each pod is integrated with a batch pick station which six to 36 orders can be picked simultaneously using pick-to-light technology. Each carousel has a Lightree (Pick-to-Light device) which indicates the active carousel, shelf, item, and quantity to pick.
Operation: A wave of orders comes down from the WMS or WES software. Good software will batch orders based on commonality. Commonality helps increase the throughput by allowing the carousel to rotate less and for every stop, the operator can pick the same SKU to fill multiple open orders. Once the operator makes a pick from the carousel, they place the required quantity of an item in the open orders by following the Put-Lights. Once completed they hit a task complete button and the system immediately directs them to the next waiting pick. The carousels always pre-position when not being picked to stay ahead of the operator. When the batch of orders are completed, the operator pushes the order onto waiting conveyor or moves the cart to the next zone.
Why a Horizontal Carousel Makes Sense for your Operation
Horizontal Carousels provide cost-effective high throughput picking operations up to 575 lines per hour/per operator while eliminating up to 2/3 the otherwise required labor. Likewise, because the system is software and Pick-to-Light directed, accuracy levels are often 99.9% and systems often provide an ROI in under two years.
Features
Horizontal Carousels have a rich selection of features unique in the Goods-to-Person materials handling and automation equipment. Truly one of the few automated solutions that can provide emergency 24/7 accessibility, here’s how.
- Operates in freezer, cooler or ambient temperatures
- Create single or multiple zones to handle a wide range of sized operations
- Reliability and uptime are tremendous
- Eliminates wasted walk and search time
- Provides easier management
- Converts wasted floor space into productive picking
- Design obstructions and columns into the system
- Carousels can be tiered up to three levels to optimize floor to ceiling space
- Robotics and inserter/extractors can be integrated for non-human picking
- Carousels can be in operation for decades
- 24/7 access and emergency picking accessibility
Benefits
Horizontal Carousels provide key benefits required in today’s order picking and fulfillment operations and is truly one of the first Goods-to-Person material handling systems.
- Up to 575 lines per hour/per operator
- Eliminates up to 2/3 the labor
- Improves accuracy levels to 99.9+%
- ROI often under 2 years
- Reduces up to 75% of wasted space
- Improves operator ergonomics
Applications
- Ecommerce and Omnichannel Retail Operations
- Order Fulfillment
- Order Consolidation
- Replenishment
- MRO spare parts Operations
- Manufacturer to Consumer
- Manufacturing
- Work in Process (WIP) Storage
- Buffer Storage
- Store Order Replenishment
