Around 90 per cent of operators say that QuickPick Remote is easy to learn and operate and they are less fatigued at the end of a shift.
Featuring the award-winning X10 handle, the GPC order picker became the operators’ first choice, even without QuickPick Remote being fitted.
Each Crown GPC 3000 order picker can carry four roll cages, and a colour-coded system allows operators to pick for multiple locations at a time, contributing to the overall productivity improvement of 7.5 per cent.
Project Manager - Jumbo Supermarkten
Jumbo Supermarkten was established in 1921 and has grown to become the largest privately-owned supermarket chain in the Netherlands with seven strategically located distribution centres serving more than 580 stores across the country. Jumbo’s reputation is built on providing the best service combined with offering the widest range at the lowest cost and its continuing success depends upon absolute reliability in the distribution chain. From its distribution centre at Veghel, Netherlands, a highly efficient logistics hub, some 1.4 million ambient and fresh items are picked and despatched each week – and on-time deliveries are key to the success of the operation.
Maintaining Jumbo’s reputation for top-quality service, the widest product range and the lowest cost, means that the company must constantly be looking for ways to improve efficiency and productivity. With the introduction of on-line ordering, timely deliveries had become ever more vital, with customer satisfaction depending upon speedy and seamless operation in Jumbo’s order picking and distribution chain. Trials with AGVs – which would have meant substantial investment cost – had produced little improvement in productivity. A more cost-effective solution that would generate efficiency gains while reducing operator fatigue leading to greater job satisfaction was required.
After seeing Crown’s QuickPick Remote order picking technology at an exhibition, Project Manager Martijn Vogelzang called in Crown who set up a series of trials of its GPC 3000 order pickers with QuickPick Remote. These were a great success, with an initial productivity gain of 5-7 per cent which has since increased to 7.5 per cent. More importantly, staff reported less fatigue because they were doing less walking between the racks, the picking cages and the operator platform of the truck. In a typical shift using a standard order picker, an operator can expect to step on and off the truck around 1,200 times. QuickPick Remote dramatically reduces this – by up to 70 per cent – because the operator can position the truck for optimal picking without the need to keep getting on and off.