Farla is an Italian cooperative that distributes medicines and parapharmaceuticals. It is headquartered in Latina and also has a site in Viterbo. It tasked SSI SCHAEFER with maximising space utilization and streamlining warehousing processes for slow-moving stock. Against this background, the intralogistics expert installed three LogiMat® vertical storage lifts.
Farla approached SSI SCHAEFER with a specific challenge: it wanted to increase storage density, and improve warehousing processes for low-turnover inventory. Although these slow-moving products are put away and retrieved less often than their fast-moving counterparts, they require significant space and resources.
Effective combination of storage lifts and Pick-by-Light technology
SSI SCHAEFER recommended an end-to-end solution for stowing, storing and retrieving special items: three LogiMat vertical storage lifts combined with a pick-by-light system for sorting picked items into containers. Each LogiMat is 6 m tall, and contains 46 trays sized 400 cm by 80 cm. This innovative approach enables over 11,000 items to be stored and picked on just 40 m².
Streamlined consolidation and picking
The combination of three lifts and pick-by-light technology accelerates the picking and order-consolidation process. When retrieving an item from a LogiMat, the employee is guided by the touchscreen display and LogiPointer laser pointer system, which spotlights the exact item to be picked. The chosen product is then placed onto shelving in a staging area. This is where the pick-by-light system comes into play – it indicates the correct position, which is assigned to a specific customer order. Conveyors then transfer a container to the workstation at the staging area, where it is filled with the consolidated order items as directed by the pick-by-light system.
This approach offers a number of advantages:
The lift puts away one tray and retrieves another while the employee simultaneously places items in the staging area – enhancing their productivity.
Visual guidance reduces order-consolidation and picking errors.
The new solution can be operated by a single person; its predecessor required four.
“The solution SSI SCHAEFER developed and installed has cut the space required for our slow-moving inventory by approximately 60 per cent. In addition, it has streamlined retrieval and picking,” emphasises Umberto Polidori, Head of Logistics at Farla.