Victoria Kickham started her career as a newspaper reporter in the Boston area before moving into B2B journalism. She has covered manufacturing, distribution and supply chain issues for a variety of publications in the industrial and electronics sectors, and now writes about everything from forklift batteries to omnichannel business trends for DC Velocity.
Choosing the best sortation system for your warehouse or distribution center (DC) depends on many factors—and it can be an especially daunting task in light of today’s accelerated e-commerce activity and the growing array of high-tech solutions available from manufacturers and systems integrators. But before making plans to invest in that cool system you saw on YouTube or that cutting-edge solution that was demoed at a recent industry trade show, make sure to analyze your facility’s needs and future demands to ensure you make the best decision.
“The one critical [issue] is always data, data, data,” says Andy Lockhart, director of strategic engagement, warehousing solutions at Vanderlande, a company that supplies automated material handling solutions, including sortation systems, for airports, warehouses, and parcel distribution facilities. “What are you trying to sort? How big are the items? How much are you sorting, that kind of thing. Data [is essential] to designing the right system.”
The right data can determine whether you need a simple sorting solution that’s been around for decades or a more advanced system designed for complex operations—or a combination of different technologies. And in some cases, emerging robotic solutions may be just what you need to get the job done.
MATERIALS AND THROUGHPUT
Sortation is the process of distributing items—by piece, case, tote, or polybag—to specific locations in a facility for packing, shipping, or routing to another destination in a company’s network. The process is common to every warehouse and DC, and at some point, managers will need to evaluate how well their system is working and whether or not it’s time to change or upgrade it.
The first step in that process is to look at what, exactly, is being sorted: What is the size range, the shape of the items, the kind of packaging each item comes in, and the throughput requirement? The answers to those questions will help determine what type of sorter is best for a particular operation, according to Dean Terrell, vice president of engineering at logistics automation and software company Fortna.
For example, paddle and push sorters can be used to sort a wide range of items in rigid or semi-rigid packaging: Paddles swing outward to divert an item onto a particular path, and pushers extend to do the same. These types of sorters have been in use for decades and represent the most basic, and often most affordable, sorting solutions, Terrell says.
At the other end of the spectrum, crossbelt sorters are ideal for handling parcels, polybags, apparel, and fragile items. These conveyor-based systems sort the items using “crossbelts”—small segments of conveyor that move products from one location to another within the system.
Other options include tray-based sorters—often ideal for sorting odd-shaped items—and sliding shoe sorters, which convey items on a surface of aluminum extruded slats, each equipped with a pusher. A series of pushers can be used in succession to move the items off the sorter and divert them onto a particular path.
“If the product is shipped in round cylinders, well that’s a hard item to handle, so a tray sorter is best for that,” Terrell explains. “If there are a lot of polybags, [flat items], and things of that nature, we would look toward a crossbelt sorter.”
Throughput makes a big difference in system selection. Paddle and push sorters are best for low-throughput applications, such as sorting boxes or totes to loading doors for shipping (although they can be used in high-throughput applications as well, according to Terrell). Crossbelt sorters, on the other hand, are best for high-throughput applications—even those involving small or fragile items—as well as in operations that are sorting a wide range of products, such as e-commerce fulfillment. Crossbelt sorters provide the most gentle and accurate method of sortation, even at high speeds, Terrell says. Sliding shoe sorters offer similar benefits for variable and high-speed operations, especially when sorting products of a variety of sizes, shapes, and weights, the experts say. Warehouse managers should also consider the number of destinations they are sorting to, as this increases the complexity of the sorting process and may drive the need for a higher-end solution.
ROBOTICS TO THE RESCUE?
Advances in robotic technology are influencing the sorting process as well. Both Terrell and Lockhart say there is growing interest among warehouse and DC managers in incorporating autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) into the sorting process, much as e-commerce giant Amazon.com has done at some of its sortation centers nationwide. At those sites, workers place packages on top of a shuttle-like AMR equipped with a conveyor belt; the AMR then drives the package to a designated location and uses the conveyor belt to propel the package into a chute, which funnels the item to its next destination.
“You’ve effectively got picked goods, each one placed onto a single AMR,” Lockhart explains. “[The AMR] will then take that product to the right exit point. It’s like a shoe on a traditional sorter, dropping [the item] where it needs to go for shipping.”
Amazon’s accomplishments and the “cool factor” are driving much of the interest in AMR sorting, but there’s a long way to go before the process sees much uptake at even the largest, busiest DCs. Terrell says customers are beginning to test AMR solutions and that the future looks bright for large-scale adoption—but only if the customer can justify the investment compared to other automated sorting solutions. He gives an example: Some initial attempts at AMR sortation have involved the construction of expensive mezzanines on which fleets of mobile robots sort items into chutes that funnel the packages into containers below. The concept is sound, Terrell says, but the size and cost of the mezzanine structure can be prohibitive. Proper planning and design is essential to making it work.
“I don’t think suppliers or end-users have figured out the best way to apply AMRs for large-scale sortation just yet, but I do see applications for that in the future,” Terrell says, explaining that the technology is best suited for low- to medium-throughput operations that have a high number of sort destinations. “As the technology continues to improve and the cost continues to come down, robotic sortation will become feasible for more and more applications.”
In the end, it comes down to applying the right technology where it makes sense in your facility—and Lockhart reiterates the importance of planning and preparation in figuring that out.
“How much growth are you planning for? Hopefully, you have more than just next year’s time horizon in your plan,” he says. “I’ve talked to people who are mapping out a 20-year time horizon. It’s important that you size things right or that you build [a system] so you have expansion capabilities down the line. You have to understand your business, your process, and your data so you can design the right solution.”
A team from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, walked away with top honors at this year’s event. It was the school’s first time competing in the scholarship competition, which was held during IANA’s Intermodal Expo in September.
The winning squad included students Jaren Bussell, Elizabeth Shuler, Brock Sooley, and Kathryn Whittaker and was coached by Dr. Donald Maier, associate professor of practice–supply chain. “It is exciting to see what the students can achieve in five hours. Each team reads, analyzes, and prepares a presentation with no faculty input,” Maier said in a release.
In addition to UT, participating schools included the California State Maritime Academy, College of Charleston, Georgia Southern University, and SUNY Maritime as well as the universities of Arkansas, Maryland, North Florida, North Texas, and Wisconsin at Superior.
IANA’s scholarship awards support curriculums designed to attract students to careers in freight and intermodal transportation. Since the program’s inception in 2007, IANA has awarded over $5.3 million in scholarships.
Family-owned business Cibao Meat Products, a producer of Hispanic-style sausages and deli meats, has long prided itself on staying true to the traditions and values the company was founded on in 1969—like a commitment to high-quality ingredients and a family workplace atmosphere. Less of a source of pride, however, was its continuing reliance on the same, mostly manual, processes and data management techniques used at its inception.
With the company now selling its meats to retail giants such as BJ’s, Sam’s Club, and Costco as well as 500 supermarkets and restaurants across the U.S., Cibao president Heinz Vieluf Jr. knew that it was time to take the company into the digital age. “As a third-generation leader of a multigenerational company, I put an emphasis on bringing our business into the digital future and utilizing technologies that will help propel success,” he said in a statement.
IN WITH THE NEW
In Cibao’s case, that would require modernizing its data-collection practices. Because the meat producer still relied on legacy processes, its company data and customer data were siloed, scattered throughout departments from sales to manufacturing to accounting. Teams were manually gathering information and creating reports on a weekly or biweekly basis. As a result, company leaders had no real-time visibility into business-critical operations. On top of that, creating those reports ate up hours of team members’ time each week.
For help bringing all of its organizational data into one central location, Cibao turned to the Slingshot work management platform from software company Infragistics. In October 2023, the company began working with Slingshot to compile data from multiple sources into a centralized hub that would be accessible to every employee.
Today, with the new platform in place, Cibao is benefiting from enhanced data transparency across the company and from accelerated data-reporting capabilities. Employees can now create reports within minutes, eliminating the biweekly reports in favor of daily assessments and unlocking insights needed to make critical decisions 10 times faster than before—saving 120 hours a month, the company says. For example, now that it has real-time access to its customer payment data, Cibao’s accounts receivable team has been able to detect any discrepancies in real time. This has allowed the team to check in with customers as soon as they notice a potential issue, which has increased the company’s cash flow by $40,000 a week on average, or up to 65%.
STRENGTHENING THE BOTTOM LINE
With teams saving hours each week on reporting, Cibao employees can now concentrate on higher-value tasks. For instance, they have more time to connect one-on-one with clients and develop relationships, instead of getting held up on the back end. They can also focus on new marketing efforts and promotions, not only boosting customer satisfaction but also helping to grow existing customer relationships and develop new ones.
“We created Slingshot to bring together data that has traditionally been spread across departments into one completely accessible space so that companies can better drive productivity, insights, and ultimately business results,” said Dean Guida, founder of Slingshot, in the statement. “By bringing its data into a central location, Cibao Meat Products has unlocked insights that have allowed [it] to move strategically and at a faster pace, strengthening the company’s bottom line.”
As autonomous systems take on a bigger role in logistics and industrial production applications, the race is on to make the equipment smarter, more efficient, and safer. To accelerate work in this area, the German lift truck and logistics technology vendor Kion Group is partnering with a local university to support expanded studies on artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems.
According to Kion, Peitz’s work will focus on the development of autonomous systems that operate intelligently and safely for all parties involved, with a particular focus on autonomous mobile robots, forklift trucks, and AI-based systems that are used in logistics and production environments.
The objective of the endowed professorship is to advance the field of research at the highest international level, Kion said in a statement. In close collaboration with research networks and other partners both within and outside TU Dortmund University, such as the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML and the Kion Group itself, the professorship will form a “hub” for digital and intelligent logistics, the company added.
American skin-care company ET Browne—best known for its Palmer’s Cocoa Butter—has trimmed costs, boosted revenue, and increased profits thanks to a recent IT upgrade from its longtime technology partner Syspro, a global enterprise resource planning (ERP) software provider that specializes in serving manufacturing and distribution businesses. ET Browne has run on Syspro software for 25 years and racked up some of its biggest year-over-year improvements following a 2023 upgrade to the latest version of Syspro ERP—an enhancement that allowed it to leverage the platform’s material requirements and planning (MRP) capabilities to build a just-in-time inventory system.
The net result? A smoother-running supply chain.
“We’ve successfully relied on [Syspro] for more than a quarter century while both growing and aligning our business to take advantage of the [platform’s] enhancements,” Pieter Goes, ET Browne’s vice president of IT & BI (business intelligence), said in a statement describing the project. “After bringing in [Syspro] to do native demand forecasts, we were able to better evaluate key markets and key customers, enabling our forecasting and capacity planning to be much more accurate. As a result, we can achieve a fill rate of greater than 95% and are able to process our purchase orders much sooner, resulting in better supply.”
NEW CAPABILITIES, BETTER OUTCOMES
Syspro’s MRP capabilities allow companies to balance supply and demand for materials and components so they can accelerate manufacturing production. With the system upgrade, ET Browne was able to take advantage of those capabilities to gain better visibility and control over inventory and the supply chain. As the companies explain, this allowed ET Browne to predict demand, understand how filling the projected sales pipeline would affect production schedules, and anticipate the peaks in demand it would need to buffer.
Leveraging those demand forecasting and supply chain management capabilities, ET Browne created a just-in-time inventory system that has dramatically reduced the amount of raw material and product it keeps on hand—a move that is translating into increased profits: Since implementing the upgrade, ET Browne has reduced inventory by 22% and increased profits 113% on 7% revenue growth.
ET Browne’s leaders say they intend to leverage Syspro to manage emerging challenges as well. Those include meeting growing consumer, distributor, and government demands to use recycled materials in packaging, while also making sure the company first uses up the materials it already has on hand. That transition will increase complexity within the company’s bill of materials, something Syspro’s management capabilities can help it navigate.
“[Syspro] ERP provides much more than just financial management,” Brian Rainboth, CEO of Syspro Americas, said in the statement. “Our platform empowers mid-market manufacturers to create accurate demand forecasts [and] project exactly how much raw material they’ll need to order and how much product they need to make to meet demand. We’re proud to celebrate 25 years with ET Browne and look forward to enabling future growth and profitability as the company deploys additional capabilities with [our] platform.”
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Illustration courtesy of Clean Energy Fuels Corporation
For consumers, the car-buying process generally includes a test drive so they can see if the vehicle lives up to its hype before they plunk down any money. But the process can be a little more difficult for commercial fleet managers.
The 2025 Peterbilt 579 day cab tractor, branded in Clean Energy’s signature green, will be available for fleets to test on their normal routes for up to two weeks. And if you don’t happen to have an RNG fueling station in your own yard, that’s no problem: The fleets testing the demo truck will be able to use Clean Energy’s fueling infrastructure, which consists of over 600 stations across North America, 200 of which have public tractor-trailer access.
First in line to try the new rig—which can haul heavy loads for an 800-mile range—is transportation and logistics giant J.B. Hunt Transport Inc. After Hunt completes its trial, the truck will make its way through large and medium-sized heavy-duty trucking companies in California, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Clean Energy says it expects to run the X15N demo truck program at least through 2025.
“Vehicles powered by renewable natural gas produce significantly less carbon emissions throughout their lifecycle and are more compatible with today’s available infrastructure than most competing emissions-reduction technologies,” Greer Woodruff, executive vice president of safety, sustainability, and maintenance at J.B. Hunt, said in a release. “The new technology and supporting fuel network in this pilot have the potential to be a viable, cost-effective solution for customers wanting to decrease their carbon footprint in the near term.”