When dealing with the distribution of thousands of goods per hour, typically to stores or counters within stores, high-speed sorters are often used. Items such as footwear, clothing, health and beauty aids, and books, are common sorter candidates. But what happens when the cases are picked and there are pieces left over? This is called residual handling.

Sorters are fed a case of products that arrive at the induction stations where they are picked down based on that wave’s load. A wave is a selection of work to be processed within a certain time period. Waves are often successively processed to meet the whole day’s requirements. When only a portion of a SKU’s case is needed, the remainder returns to either a temporary residual storage buffer or is returned to its stock location. Residuals are kept in temporary storage and are reprocessed for use in later waves. The next time residuals are required for that stocking keeping unit (SKU), warehouse management software tries to take it from the buffer first.

In the past, residuals have typically been either returned to their pallet positions, or to large shelving areas where they are stored on standard static shelving units and flow racks until they are needed.                                

Each of these methods has benefits, but they do not offer the most efficient means of processing residuals. For example, returning stock to high bay pallet positions requires the use of fork lifts in their least efficient mode—dealing with individual cases or pieces...

...Continued in the pages of Twin Plant News, Subscribe Today!