Vanderlande’s AirTrax Pocket supports The Beehive’s premium service
Vanderlande has installed its advanced AirTrax Pocket for Netherland’s department store retailer de Bijenkorf (or ‘The Beehive’) at its Tilburg warehouse, the first large-scale system of its kind in The Netherlands. The omni-channel solution is now fully operational. The Pocket sorter supports three areas on site: B2C orders; B2B store orders storing ‘fast movers’ and ecommerce returns in the storage area. It will be operated on de Bijenkorf’s behalf by CEVA Logistics, a leading provider of supply chain solutions.
De Bijenkorf is the most renowned chain of high-end premium department stores in the Netherlands. Through its retail and e-commerce stores, the company sells luxury clothing, fashion accessories, cosmetics and perfume, as well as furniture and home accessories. Established in 1870, it now has flagship stores in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam.
The new 32,159m2 warehouse will supply seven national stores, as well as e-commerce orders from Germany, Luxemburg, Belgium, Netherlands, France and Austria. To support its activities, de Bijenkorf required a cutting-edge automated solution that offered a sortation capacity of up to 8,000 items per hour and could handle both e-commerce multi-item and retail orders.
An omni-channel approach
Vanderlande’s AirTrax Pocket is an innovative and reliable solution for transporting, sequencing and storing goods. Vanderlande’s solution is a fully integrated part of de Bijenkorf’s omni-channel warehouse. It not only helps reduce lead and transportation times, but also improves the company’s ability to handle its stock efficiently.
There are approximately 48,000 pockets within the Tilburg system and the solution offers de Bijenkorf a loading capacity of 8,000 pockets per hour. The AirTrax Pocket sorter will allow to handle around 95% of its 210,000 SKUs. In addition, AirTrax Pocket offers de Bijenkorf the opportunity to facilitate variable pick batches and uniform processing, as well as reduce operational complexity.
An excellent result
“In seeing the operation live, I am highly impressed by the Vanderlande AirTrax Pocket,” says Maxim Hurkmans, business unit director, Ingram Micro. “We knew that the solution would become an integral part of our omni-channel warehouse because of its ability to reduce lead and transportation times and improve our stock handling.
“De Bijenkorf has strong growth ambitions and is looking to move into different territories. To do so and to remain competitive, highly automated solutions such as the AirTrax Pocket are essential. Not only is the system performing effectively, but Vanderlande worked closely with us at all times during the installation process and has been a truly professional partner,” adds Joeri de Vaan, senior manager operations, Ingram Micro.
“Innovations such as the AirTrax Pocket showcase our ambition to stay at the forefront of technology in the warehousing sector,” says Vanderlande’s executive vice president warehousing, Terry Verkuijlen. “We are proud to have partnered with Ingram Micro on this latest development, and now that the Pocket sorter is live, the warehouse can continue to deliver a first-class shopping experience to its customers.”