Speed is no longer a differentiating factor in the supply chain; it is the minimum standard demanded by the market. In a hyper-connected commercial environment, the success of a logistics strategy is measured in minutes. The ultimate metric that keeps operations managers awake at night is the lead time or cycle time of an order: the exact time that elapses from the moment the customer clicks the ‘buy’ button until the parcel is ready on the dispatch bay.
When internal workflow relies on manual processes, there is an insurmountable physical limit to how much this cycle time can be reduced. No matter how many operators are added to the order-picking lines, human error, fatigue and movement around the warehouse ultimately slow down operations.
At Moinsa Consulting, we analyse the five strategic keys to understanding how the automation of sorting and order picking radically transforms the efficiency of your intralogistics. To overcome this limitation, leading companies rely on the convergence of two critical technologies: automated picking systems and logistics sorting.
5 strategic keys to boosting your intralogistics efficiency
1. Eliminating walking distances through the ‘Goods-to-Person’ model
In a conventional warehouse, operators spend up to 60 per cent of their working day on a task that adds no value: walking up and down the aisles looking for stock items. This constant movement not only prolongs preparation times but also increases fatigue and, consequently, the risk of counting errors.
Automated picking systems solve this problem at its root by applying the ‘Goods-to-Person’ principle. Through solutions such as case stacker cranes (mini-loads), shuttle systems or autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), goods are transported in a fully automated manner from their storage location to the picker’s fixed workstation.
As the operator receives the bins or boxes directly at an ergonomic workstation, they need only concentrate on retrieving the items indicated on the guidance screen. This synchronisation completely eliminates downtime caused by internal transport, multiplying productivity per operator and immediately reducing the cost per order line.
2. Specialised automated sorting: The flow of boxes and hanging garments
Once the products have been retrieved, the real challenge is to sort them quickly according to their destination, whether to restock a physical shop (B2B) or to group the items in an e-commerce consignment (B2C). This is where logistics sorting becomes the driving force of the warehouse.
Automated goods sorting solutions must be tailored to the type of product to be truly efficient. In the distribution sector, two major technological trends stand out:
- Automation of the flow of boxes and parcels. Using intelligent roller or belt conveyors combined with mechanical diverters (such as cross-belt systems or shoe sorters), the system identifies the barcode on each moving box and diverts it at high speed to the appropriate consolidation ramp.
- Systems for hanging garments (Fashion Retail). The fashion sector demands careful handling of the product. Overhead sorters for hanging garments enable the management of thousands of jackets, coats or dresses on hangers, automatically sorting them by style, size or colour. The goods flow suspended from the warehouse ceiling, completely freeing up the industrial floor space for other critical operations.
3. Drastic reduction in lead time
The native integration between picking and automatic sorting allows processes to be linked together seamlessly, eliminating the build-up of intermediate stock or holding trays that so often slow down manual intralogistics.
When a warehouse automates its internal flow, the journey of an item from the moment it is retrieved from the high-density racking until it is placed in the final dispatch box takes place in a just-in-time, uninterrupted flow. This fluidity drastically reduces the facility’s overall lead time.
A multi-item order that previously required several hours of manual coordination between aisles and packing stations can now be fulfilled in a matter of minutes. This speed of response allows you to extend the cut-off time with transport providers, offering your customers much wider and more competitive delivery windows.
4. Automated quality control for efficient order fulfilment
Efficient order fulfilment is not just about speed, but about carrying out the process without errors. In modern logistics, a dispatch error incurs a double cost: the reverse logistics expense of handling the return and the reputational cost of spoiling the customer’s experience.
Automated picking and sorting systems act as a continuous quality control filter throughout the entire journey of the goods. Picking stations are fitted with precision scales and machine vision systems that instantly verify that the item retrieved matches exactly, in terms of weight and dimensions, the one requested by the computer system.
Subsequently, during the sorting phase, omnidirectional laser scanners re-validate each shipping label at speeds exceeding two metres per second. If a parcel has an anomaly in its barcode or estimated weight, the sorter automatically diverts it to a rejection lane for manual inspection, ensuring that 100 per cent of orders leaving the dispatch bays are correct.
5. Scalability and stress-free absorption of demand peaks
One of the biggest challenges in warehouse management is seasonality. Events such as Black Friday, sales campaigns or seasonal changes in the textile sector can increase a distribution centre’s usual order volume tenfold in just a few days.
Scaling up manual operations in such scenarios is extremely complex and costly, as it requires recruiting and training large numbers of temporary staff in record time. By contrast, Moinsa Consulting’s modular automation systems are designed to handle high utilisation rates without compromising efficiency.
An automated sorting system maintains the same hourly sorting throughput whether it is a Tuesday in the off-season or the busiest day of the year. This operational resilience provides peace of mind for company management, ensuring that sales growth will never lead to internal capacity issues.
‘Automating internal workflow transforms the distribution centre: it ceases to be a static storage space and becomes a dynamic factory for processing and dispatching orders at high speed.’
The next step towards the intralogistics of the future
The decision to automate picking and sorting should not be viewed as an isolated engineering project, but rather as a strategic transformation of the business model. Choosing the right conveyor and sorting technology requires a rigorous analysis of data flows, the dimensions of the goods and the company’s growth forecasts.
At Moinsa Consulting, we support companies throughout this modernisation process, designing turnkey solutions that eliminate bottlenecks and maximise the profitability of every square metre of your facility.
Considering the volume of SKUs and the type of packaging you currently handle at your facilities, what would you say is the main bottleneck slowing down your dispatch speed during peak preparation times?