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abco AUTOMATION is the Perfect Pick to Partner with Opex Corporation

by Travis Baker

Bloomfield, New Jersey- abco automation has partnered with OPEX Corporation to offer Perfect Pick® to the material handling industry. The Perfect Pick is a unique product-to-person technology that is highly flexible and scalable. Given abco automation’s expertise in product-to-person technologies the partnership is a great fit.

Perfect Pick’s small footprint and superior fixed-aisle scalability offers a low cost entry point to automate picking operations. Perfect Pick’s scalability lies in its iBOT® technology. The system does not require conveyors or elevators like on typical shuttle systems. This means that if you want to increase speed or throughput, you only need to add more independent, wireless iBOTs.

In addition, because of the small footprint, Perfect Pick is a great option for brownfield projects or adding product-to-person technologies to handle the SKU’s that would benefit from being placed in a P2P system. abco automation has been preaching the gospel of mathematical analysis of distribution centers and drilling down into what technology serves each part of the Pareto Curve.

Opex Perfect Pick offered by abco automation Another benefit, unlike many technologies on the market, is that the Perfect Pick is easy to understand and easy to explain, even to those outside of the world of material handling.

“This is an automated solution that clients are going to feel comfortable with and that they will understand quickly, said Jeff Hedges of OPEX. “Perfect Pick’s simple, uncomplicated design allows clients to quickly see how it will function in their distribution center”.

“OPEX Corporation is excited to add abco Automation as an integration partner representing Perfect Pick. Like OPEX, abco is a family-owned and operated company headquartered in New Jersey and in business for over 40 years. This rich history and depth of experience along with abco’s stated mission to apply the “best-of-breed” product-to-person technologies to warehouse and distribution center design makes the addition of Perfect Pick a natural fit,” says Hedges.

“We are really excited about the Opex relationship because it provides us with Perfect Pick, a very powerful tool that we can bring to our clients that need a high rate, piece picking order fulfillment solution. Combined with our data analysis capabilities and process engineering expertise, the Perfect Pick solution can be specifically engineered to fit our customers applications,” Jack Lehr, President of abco automation.

About OPEX Corporation
OPEX Material Handling is a division of OPEX Corporation, a recognized global technology leader in document imaging and high-speed mailroom automation. Since 1973, OPEX systems have provided performance enhancing workflow solutions and cost-effective results to thousands of organizations worldwide. OPEX equipment and technology has been efficiently and reliably handling everything from individual, single-piece items ranging in size from envelopes, documents and checks all the way through 60-pound payloads using our Perfect Pick™ system. Today, OPEX systems are installed in financial services, healthcare, government, non-profit, utility, service bureau, insurance, telecommunications, and university/educational marketplaces around the world. For more information, visit www.opex.com.

About abco automation

abco automation is an American firm that specializes in designing and implementing American-built, capital-efficient distribution systems. A straight-speaking, flexible, fun-to-work-with company, abco automation designs and installs the very best product-to-person (P2Psm) picking systems at the most reasonable price.

abco automation specializes in identifying and applying the right technology for each speed products. All of abco automation’s designs require examination of the customer’s solution through the proven lens of the Pareto Curve. abco automation designs capital-efficient systems that do more, in less space, with fewer people. Visit www.abcoAUTOMATION.us for more information.

Media Contact: Travis A. Baker, Abco Automation: marketing@abcoautomation.us.

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Filed Under: opex, Product-to-Person

How a Systems Integrator Can Increase Efficiency in Your Distribution Center

by Travis Baker

In the last piece “Do You Have Pickers or Walkers” we spoke about how many system integrators don’t know where to focus their attention. Instead of focusing on all of the other components of a job that a picker has, the focus should always be on picking.  After all that is what pickers (or selectors) get paid to do.

So how does a good system integrator make sure your pickers are focused on picking? The most efficient way is employing technology to facilitate product-to-person picking. However, product-to-person picking only system integrator increases efficiencyworks with part of the SKU base.

That is where it gets fun: figuring out what SKU’s will work with product-to-person and what you should do with the other SKUs. This challenge is the difference between working with a good system integrator and a so-so system integrator.

For example, look at this recent solution we presented to a retail distribution center.

During the peak period of 2010 there were 12,000 active SKUs that needed to be selected. In the original system, these SKUs all have a permanent pick-face due to the use of only one technology throughout the distribution center.

Note: Always be aware of single technology solutions.  If all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail!

In our new system design, we have pick faces for 2,600+ SKUs in the forward pick area, and approximately 2,000 pick faces in the product-to-person system.  This means that only 4,700 SKUs out of 12,000 (39%) have to be presented to the selectors at any given time. This is a 61% reduction in pick facings a selector must walk past to get to the items they need to select. This is a 61% reduction in travel distance.

What would be the effect on the operation? When you deliver the items to the pickers who used to walk to get them, you eliminate a significant amount of time; 61% in fact. You can also eliminate a significant amount of touches depending on what technologies you use. You touch it once during put away and once when it is on its way out the door. This increases efficiency and, of course, accuracy.

You can also eliminate a lot of wasted space. Depending on what types of technologies you use in your distribution center, many product-to-person technologies focus on getting SKUs off of the floor and up in the air inside the machine, as opposed to sitting in a rack on the floor.

What effect would a 61% reduction in travel distance have on your operation? How can you use product-to-person distribution in your DC to increase your efficiency and accuracy? Want to have a conversation about it?  Contact abco automation and let’s sit down and see what we can do.

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Filed Under: Pareto Principle, Product-to-Person

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