DHL SUPPLY CHAIN AUTOMATES PICKING PROCESS IN LEDER & SCHUH'S WAREHOUSE IN POHOŘELICE

• Assistance picking robots from 6 River Systems help operators to pick orders for Leder & Schuh e-commerce customers.
• A fleet of 19 robots, connected to the warehouse management system, now work alongside the employees of the Pohořelice warehouse
• Collaborative robots increase productivity, precision and employee satisfaction.
• The recent deployment of piece picking robots in the Czech Republic is part of the wider roadmap of DHL Supply Chain to further commercialize automation in its European warehouses according to the needs of the customers.

DHL Supply Chain, a leading provider of contract logistics services, is deploying assistive piece picking robots from 6 River Systems in the distribution center of its long-term client Leder & Schuh in Pohořelice. Collaborative robots facilitate the work of warehouse operators, increase productivity and speed up the training of new employees. At the same time, thanks to them, even higher accuracy is achieved when picking orders from e-shops. Automating the Leder & Schuh warehouse in Pohořelice is part of the global roadmap of DHL Supply Chain to further commercialize automation in its operations by building a fleet of robots that can easily and flexibly be moved between individual warehouses, if necessary in peak times.

“Our warehouse is the first for DHL Supply Chain in Central and Eastern Europe to move to picking with assisted picking robot technology,” says Kamil Vajbar, Leder & Schuh site manager in Pohořelice, adding: “Collaborative robots help our employees with picking piece goods from shoe boxes to fashion accessories such as handbags, belts or socks, both for supplying the client’s stores and for preparing shipments for the client’s online shop. With seven million pairs of shoes a year, this makes our work much easier.”

The total of 19 robots were delivered to the Pohořelice DHL Supply Chain warehouse by the American company 6 River Systems. “In Pohořelice, its robots find application in picking B2B and B2C orders,” explains Dalibor Ondra, who is in charge of implementing innovative technologies in Central and Eastern Europe at DHL Supply Chain. “This is not a completely autonomous robot, but a so called “collaborative” robotic system. It only assists operators in picking, while moving autonomously. Our machines replace repetitive and strenuous process steps, but not the workers themselves. An additional benefit is greater transparency along the entire picking process.”

The brain of the entire solution is the superior control system, which, based on data from the warehouse software, autonomously guides the operator through the process of picking goods. At the same time, the electronic system optimizes the route and, via a tablet, provides the employee with instructions on where to take which item, the bar code of which he then scans. The robot also includes a label printer, which streamlines the printing process and affixing price labels to goods. “It is DHL Supply Chain’s first integration of mobile printers with 6 River Systems robots globally," emphasizes Dalibor Ondra. One by one, the operator places the goods in the storage space of the robot, which, after completing the batch, takes them unaccompanied to the place for unloading. From there, the goods travel to the final packaging and the robot moves back to its starting

DHL Supply Chain has been a logistics partner of Leder & Schuh since 1998. In 2013, the online shop and the central warehouse in Pohořelice were connected, thus expanding the range of services provided. At present, service for the online shop is an integral part of warehousing operations. Over the years, streamlining processes has reduced the area of the distribution center by 2,000 m² to the current 15,000 m². DHL Supply Chain provides warehousing and distribution services, customs clearance, and value-added services for Leder & Schuh, such as measuring the size of shoes or a photo shop for online sales. As part of wholesale, the Pohořelice distribution center serves a total of nine markets in Central and South-Eastern Europe. It sends goods to end customers in the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and Slovakia.