Ask any pick-and-pack warehouse operator: there are pros and cons for each of the picking methodologies they choose for their fulfillment operations. Zone picking is ideal for very large operations where pickers must travel long distances to complete an order or for smaller sites with very high order volume where congestion is an issue. However, a common challenge associated with zone picking is predicting where your associates will need to be based on inventory slotting and the order pool for the day. Incorrectly predicting zones results in overworking some associates while others wait around with nothing to do.

Armed with knowledge of this challenge, we tackled the question: what if you could reap the benefits of zone picking without the challenge of analyzing inventory slotting, consumer demand and labor availability? Our solution: dynamic zoning.

First, let’s understand the methodology we consider behind using static zones within a warehouse.

Why are zones used?

In order to meet SLAs and maintain profitability, there is a constant pressure to keep a fulfillment operation running efficiently. Enabling associates to spend more time picking products and less time walking from one place to another is an area ripe for optimization. Although collaborative mobile robots eliminate long, unnecessary walks to deliver and receive work, they do not remove walking between picks. One technique to alleviate unnecessary walking is to break the picking area into zones and assign associates to stay within them. This can be especially effective if there are sparse picks over a large area.

What are the challenges of using zones?

There are two interrelated problems that often cause zones to be less effective than operators hope: defining zone areas and labor balancing.

Zone areas are set with the intent to evenly distribute work and ideally put common clusters of work in one area. The problem is that it is extraordinarily difficult to predict commonly clustered SKUs. Order profiles are constantly changing over time – from season to season and even over the course of the day. We often see warehouses that have been broken into zones based on physical size and then never adjusted again.

The second related problem is labor balancing. Over the course of a shift, an operator wants their associates to spend as much time as possible actively picking rather than traveling from one pick to the next or, even worse, idle. So, when utilizing a zone picking method, it’s best when the orders are evenly distributed across all zones so each associate is engaged. Unfortunately, this rarely happens – there are often drastically different work loads across zones. To mitigate this, managers need to constantly monitor order volumes and make adjustments to zone assignments on the fly. Although we have some operations that want to use zones, most of our operations decided that there were too many inefficiencies and overhead managing them to make them beneficial.

The Solution: Dynamic Zones

Analyzing our customers’ needs, we have devised an innovative solution that reaps all of the benefits of traditional zones with none of the drawbacks. We call this dynamic zoning; here’s how it works:

When an associate completes a pick and is preparing to travel to the next, 6 River Systems’ intelligent allocation system calculates how much time it will take for the associate to get to the new pick. It also calculates how long it will take the current associate to meet another robot and a new associate to meet the current robot. If it ever takes less time to do this handoff, it is performed and time is saved. It has exactly the same benefit as if a perfect zone was created for this batch of orders.

Figuring out ideal zone boundaries is no longer a problem; there are no fixed zone boundaries! The 6RS software effectively determines the perfect zone for each robot without any operator intervention.

There is no need for labor balancing – we do that automatically. With dynamic zones, there are never associates waiting for work. As soon as an associate completes work with a robot, it leaves for the new “zone” and the associate can meet the next waiting robot. We have already determined there is one that is available for them.

Summary

Traditional static zones can be an effective technique to increase productivity and it is a methodology that 6 River Systems has supported for years. However, it does have its shortcomings so we designed a superior solution: dynamic zoning, which is just one of many innovations that we offer to our customers.

The post How 6 River Systems is Solving the Challenges of Traditional Zoning Methods appeared first on 6 River Systems.

Step 2: Solution Development

Your operational metrics are securely shared with a dedicated solution designer who will crunch the numbers and deliver a report containing proposed system size, ROI, KPIs and timelines for your site.

Because we take our relationships with customers seriously, we look for a solution that will bring true value to your bottom line and we’re honest about whether or not we can provide it. This process is thorough and usually takes 5-10 business days. When everyone’s satisfied with the design, we move on to step three.

Step 3: Solution Review

Together with key stakeholders at your business, our team of experts will develop a plan for fast, remote implementation. In just a few short weeks, you can have collaborative mobile robots up and running at your operation.

Are you ready to get started?

Find a time to connect with one of our solutions experts today.

The post 3 easy steps: Is Chuck right for your operation? appeared first on 6 River Systems.

At 6 River Systems, we maintain a laser focus on our customers’ needs and improving our solutions for them. In today’s environment, the top thing on most operators’ minds is keeping their associates safe while running their operations. In response, we devoted a team to focus solely on recommendations, updates and features to improve the safety of associates with respect to pathogens such as COVID-19.

Operations that are using Chucks for automation already have an advantage in the fight against COVID-19 compared to traditional cart pick operations: they are more efficient and require fewer warehouse associates in the building than manual operations to get the same throughput. While this is a great start, our goal is to find new ways to increase safety at our customers’ operations.

Each operation is unique; not every solution works for every site. Likewise, designing solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic is a balance between safety, efficiency, current site design and demand. Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all solution, we have compiled a list of recommendations to review and implement in partnership with each customer site. Here is some of what we’ve shared with our customers.

What we are recommending immediately:

Hardware Recommendations

Health and hygiene recommendations differ from operation to operation, though we are recommending that all associates wear protective gloves and a mask. Chuck is designed with large, easy to clean and robust action and pause buttons and lights, reducing interactions with touchscreens. Chuck’s touchscreens are compatible with styluses and with a wide variety of gloves, which helps prevent cross-associate contamination. Similarly, we have provided our customers recommendations for proper sanitation of screens and surfaces on Chuck. When an associate meets a new Chuck and before they begin the picking, induct or takeoff process, we have advised them to take a few seconds to wipe down the few areas that are touched (action buttons, pause button and touchscreen) with a sanitizing wipe which is stored on the Chuck.

Operational Recommendations

When mitigating risk of exposure to pathogens, there are two schools of thought that we are recommending to our customers: sites should seek to minimize tactile exposure throughout the warehouse and maximize social distance between associates. Regardless of the approach decided upon by the customer, 6RS is a directed system with associates simply following instructions from Chuck.

Without making any changes to a site’s operational design, Chuck enables a base-level of social distancing within a warehouse by automating long walks between induct, active picking, and takeoff areas, all of which are often crowded areas on the warehouse floor. With the exception of breaks, the associate can remain on the picking floor at a safe distance from other associates.

To minimize shared surfaces and tactile exposure, we can implement changes to limit the number of Chucks an associate works with during the day. Alternately, operators can limit cross-contamination on the pick faces by utilizing static zoning rules to ensure associates remain in place while Chuck crosses from one zone to the next. Combined with a regular sanitization of buttons, screens and other items on Chucks, this should significantly reduce contamination risk.

Our solutions and data insights teams are ready to review the impact of layout changes, such as temporarily restricting 2-way aisles to 1-way traffic. This practice, long in place at many of our sites to maximize inventory storage and recently adopted by local supermarkets, reduces in-aisle interactions between associates and supports social distancing.

We also recommend that sites picking to totes wipe them down at induct or temporarily switch to picking into shipping containers, if possible. This reduces the risk of commonly touched surfaces.

What we are working to provide:

We are working to quickly prototype and deploy an accessory to hold sanitizing wipes and gloves that we will provide to customers at no cost. In addition, we are working to enhance compliance with new hygiene practices by updating our software to remind associates to wipe down Chuck’s confirmation buttons and screen immediately after they badge in (a touchless process). Furthermore, we are working to make the entire picking experience touchless by using an associate barcode “cheat sheet” to replace most of the common touches on Chuck.

Our engineers are making software changes to ensure that when Chucks are engaged with associates, they follow social distancing protocols when coworkers do meet in picking aisles.

At MODEX this year, we announced a tote auto loader/unloader for our Chuck robots. This type of automation increases safety by reducing touches of common surfaces and will also increase our customers’ throughput during this surge in direct to consumer ordering.

Our promise:

So much of today’s dynamic environment is uncertain. We recognize that each of our customers’ sites are experiencing different challenges, be it in volume, labor, safety or uncertainty. We are dedicated to providing the right solutions for our customers. Internally, we have always championed flexibility in our solutions which allows us to rapidly make changes in times of need. We are driven by a handful of core values, one of which is we all win when our customers win. We will continue to look at new approaches and technologies to keep our customers’ associates safe. We at 6 River Systems wish you, all your employees and loved ones good health in these difficult times.

About the Author

Chris Cacioppo is the Chief Technology Officer and co-Founder of 6 River Systems.
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Chris Cacioppo is responsible for technical oversight and advanced programs at 6 River Systems. Chris is a veteran of many startups and previously ran engineering at Mimio, an education technology company. Christopher has a Masters from MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

The post How 6 River Systems solutions protect warehouse associates during the COVID-19 crisis appeared first on 6 River Systems.

6 River Systems co-founder and co-CEO Rylan Hamilton has been named a Pro to Know by Supply & Demand Chain Executive. The Pros to Know Awards recognize supply chain executives who are leading initiatives to prepare their companies for the significant challenges of today’s business climate.

Rylan co-founded 6 River Systems (6RS) to serve the quickly growing e-commerce and 3PL businesses who were being underserved by existing material handling vendors. At 6 River Systems, Rylan leads corporate and recruiting functions and is dedicated to building a team that’s smart, nimble and effective. He is passionate about mentoring, developing and retaining winning teams. Before 6 River Systems, Rylan was a member of the leadership team at Kiva (now Amazon Robotics).

Rylan has a record of seeking out challenges and “getting it done” by managing teams to the best of their abilities and working across organizations. When first launching 6RS with Jerome Dubois and Chris Cacioppo, he led the charge in finding the right team to support and build their vision, and they were able to convince early adopters of the benefits of this new technology.

“Rylan is a customer-centric leader who rolls up his sleeves and gets to work,” says co-CEO and co-Founder Jerome Dubois. “I have worked with Rylan for 10+ years and have been consistently impressed with his work ethic, creativity and dedication to providing solutions for the materials handling industry. These qualities are what made me want to co-found 6 River Systems with Rylan.”

Last fall, Rylan was instrumental in ensuring our customers had smooth peak operations. He jumped at the chance to support our client sites on-the-ground and helped improve their fulfillment processes. As a result, our client sites fulfilled more than 1 million units during the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

“Rylan is a leader with a holistic eye towards improvement,” says Lani Noel, Director of Talent Acquisition at 6 River Systems. “He unites his team and empowers them to recognize their own potential.”

Over the last year he’s worked closely with Lani to triple our staff from 40 employees to nearly 120 Rivs. He also implemented departmental lunch & learns to improve company-wide communication, issued quarterly employee surveys to better take the pulse of the company and developed new systems to train and promote our employees.

“All of these initiatives made our company run better, and Rylan was the driving force behind it all,” says Zoe Peirce, Office Coordinator at 6 River Systems. “With such an immense growth in staff comes great complexities in managing career development, onboarding, training and HR. Rylan deftly handled these challenges.”

This year’s Pros to Know list includes more than 200 individuals from software firms and service providers, consultancies or academia, who helped their supply chain clients or the supply chain community at large prepare to meet these challenges—and more than 40 Practitioner Pros who do the same within their own companies.

“The supply chain profession is ever-changing, with transformative technologies and evolutionary best practices driving greater efficiencies and innovations for companies. At the heart of it all are supply chain professionals,” says John R. Yuva, editor-in-chief for Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

Congratulations, Rylan!

—–

Read the press release from Supply and Demand Chain Executive

Interested in joining our team? Check out our Jobs page.

The post Head Riv Rylan Hamilton named a 2020 Pro to Know appeared first on 6 River Systems.

No matter what methodology is used, warehouses share a common goal: improving both the efficiency and accuracy of the order picking process in warehouses. To achieve these goals, warehouses follow several best practices:

1. Analyze product velocity
2. Organize inventory strategically
3. Establish picking routes
4. Maintain accurate inventory data
5. Analyze error data
6. Automate as much as possible

1. Analyze product velocity 

The organization of a warehouse’s inventory can make or break efficiency when it comes to order picking. Within the industry, this can also be referred to as “proper slotting of the product.” “Slotting” is a term used for locating the inventory within a pick area. It can also be “velocity based slotting”, which takes product velocity into account.

If pickers are required to walk the full span of the building several times to pick commonly needed inventory, your warehouse layout is not optimized.

Analyze your travel time, product velocity and other data, and locate fast-moving inventory in the most easily-accessible racks – ideally, racks that are nearest to the shipping or loading dock destinations.

2. Organize inventory strategically

Slotting, which refers to the careful placement of individual cases within the warehouse, can also help to optimize your warehouse layout. Grouping similar items together makes inventory easier to locate, which in turn reduces picking time. This is also known as zoning, or creating established areas for distinct inventory types and categories, which is typically paired with zone-based order picking. In zone picking, order pickers are assigned to specific zones and pick only orders from their assigned zones. Hot zones, or zones that contain the SKUs that generate the most picking activity, lead to a higher pick density, which is a proven way to improve productivity.

Batch picking can also be used with a zone-based layout. In batch picking, associates pick multiple orders from a specified zone in a single trip. Wave picking, on the other hand, is a combination of zone and batch picking in which pickers pick multiple orders from multiple zones at the same time. After picking, the orders are then divided into separate orders. With any of these picking methodologies, having strategically organized inventory speeds up the process.

Finally, slotting similar products in a checkerboard style to prevent confusing similar products in adjacent bins helps with order picking accuracy.

3. Establish picking routes

Once you’ve organized your warehouse layout according to product velocity or by grouping similar items together, it’s easier to establish preferred (or required) picking routes. By establishing the best routes for picking various types of inventory, you remove the guesswork surrounding getting to the right inventory, so workers – human or machine – can focus on accuracy.

Picking routes are also dependent on picking methodologies, but generally can be established to ensure that order picking in a warehouse is conducted in the most efficient way possible, eliminating common issues such as backtracking through aisles that have already been passed through, which adds to total picking time and overhead costs.

4. Maintain accurate inventory data

While the strategies above can improve picking accuracy, they’re only as effective as the foundation they’re built upon: accurate inventory data. Inventory should be easily located with signage, rack labels and other warehouse labels, and products should be readily identifiable.

After all, having all your inventory in the optimal locations and having established picking routes for efficiency means little if the inventory needed is out of stock or not where it’s supposed to be. Maintaining accurate inventory data provides better visibility into your warehouse operation and can also provide insight into product velocity and other metrics.

5. Analyze error data

Your operational data holds many secrets that, when identified, can dramatically improve your ROI. Collecting and analyzing data on picking errors can help you identify the specific point at which errors are typically occurring, for instance, allowing you to laser-focus corrective actions on the points of error.

Posting individual or group error rates is a strategy that some warehouses use to increase awareness among team members. That said, positive reinforcement may be more effective, so you may opt to incentivize accuracy through bonuses or other perks.

6. Use smart automation as much as possible

When humans are directly involved in any process, errors are likely to occur, and in the case of warehouse order picking, it’s a process which, by nature, is rather inefficient. Warehouse order pickers can spend more than half of their time traveling from point to point within a warehouse to pick orders, creating a lot of wasteful overhead.

Fortunately, there are many technologies that automate long-standing warehouse processes, from barcode scanners to conveyor belts to shuttles and mobile robots, all with the goal of reducing the time workers spend moving products manually. Some of the best automation solutions for warehouses augment the work of humans rather than replacing them, allowing warehouses to increase picking accuracy and boost efficiency without losing that human touch.

Order picking accuracy can make or break the success of a warehouse operation. Following these steps and implementing these strategies will help to streamline processes and enhance both accuracy and efficiency, so your warehouse can do what it does best, but even better.

The post How to improve warehouse order picking accuracy appeared first on 6 River Systems.

Rylan Hamilton

Rylan placed in the Outstanding Young Professional Award category, awarded to an MHI member under 40 “who has displayed professional accomplishments and affiliations, effective leadership skills and contributions to their company and innovation at work or in the industry.” He joins a group of other industry professionals who were also nominated for the award:

• Anshul Joshi, Research & Development Engineer, Cubiscan
• Brian C. Neuwirth, VP – Sales & Marketing, UNEX Manufacturing
• Justin Sturek, Continuous Improvement Manager, The Raymond Corporation;
• Molly Wood, Engineering Manager, Ace Industries
• Paul Berkes, Senior Manager, Production Control and Logistics,UniCarriers Americas

In addition to the Outstanding Young Professional category, MHI will give a Mentor Award to “an MHI member who offers professional guidance, is a positive and inspiring role model, instills and nurtures talent, advocates for employees and supports their professional development and possesses a commitment to the company and its people.” The nominees for that category include:

• James Radous, President, UniCarriers Americas
• Mark Johnson, Sales Manager, Precision Automation Company
• Robert Kennedy, Partner/VP of Business Development, DMLogic

Congrats to all the nominees! The winners will be announced at MODEX 2018 next week.

More about Rylan

Rylan is one of three co-founders at 6 River Systems. He was formerly part of the leadership team at Kiva Systems, now Amazon Robotics, where he led the design and deployment organizations. He’s also a former U.S. Navy engineering officer.

About us

6 River Systems is the new way companies fulfill. Unlike anchored down, no-touch, steel and motors, 6 River Systems is a flexible and collaborative solution for the warehouses of tomorrow.

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• Forbes
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