New automated sortation system for footwear at New Gate Group (NG2)
The New Gate Group (NG2) is Poland’s leading footwear company with 550 shops. The company is one of the best performing companies on the Polish stock market. NG2 expects to grow to 1,300 shops by 2012 and expects to sell a total of 27 million pairs of shoes each year. For daily deliveries to all the shops, Vanderlande Industries has developed an automated sortation system.
The order picking process is not mechanized. Picking is done from two warehouses in full cartons only. Via a bridge the cartons arrive in the distribution center. Depending on the season 50% of full cartons will be shipped directly via movable telescopic conveyors into the delivery trucks of the courier services. The rest of the cartons will be sorted to four de-box stations where full cartons are emptied and pair boxes are directed to the CROSSORTER inducts. At the cross belt sorter outfeeds the pair boxes are packed into shipping cartons, cartons are closed and directed to the shipping sorter. Prior to sortation, each carton will be labeled automatically. Shipping cartons are directly loaded into the containers of the courier services.
The entire sortation process is managed in real time by Vanderlande Industries’ VISION.XDOCK controls software. The logistics processes, VISION.XDOCK controls software and the sortation system are fully integrated. VISION.XDOCK controls and supervises every stage of the logistics process, maximizing productivity and reducing manual intervention to a minimum. The system became operational in the first quarter of 2009.
