Sunny Europe Manages Complex Order Picking Workflows

Case Study Overview

Sunny Europe provides tax-exempt goods to outlets in several European countries. As it grew, its complex operations – which used manual storage and retrieval methods — had trouble keeping up with time pressures. By installing eight Modula vertical lift modules and integrating them with their mechanical and digital operations, they were able to dramatically increase their productivity and all but
eliminate mispicks.

The Challenge

Sunny Europe provides tax-exempt goods to outlets in Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands, primarily in maritime and diplomatic locations but domestic areas as well. The company handles the products typically found in a duty-free shop: alcohol, watches, clothing, cigarettes, food, and perfume, receiving the items from manufacturers and then deploying them to their outlets. Sunny Europe had a complex operation of receiving and distributing items of varying sizes and values. As it grew, it had trouble matching the operational requirements with a manual storage system.

The Solution

The company bought eight Modula vertical lift modules to handle both the flow of goods into its warehouse in Antwerp as well as shipments out of it. Small, expensive items that turn over rapidly in the outlets were stored in the VLMs. The automated storage units were connected to the rest of the warehouse with both elaborate conveyor-belt routes and with digital connections through the Modula warehouse management system (WMS) solution.

As a result, productivity jumped from 35 lines an hour in the manual system to 150 or 220 lines an hour, depending on the complexity of the order. Altogether, Sunny Europe can manage 3,000 lines a day with close to zero mispicks. The most valuable items are kept clean and secure within the Modula VLMs. In addition, Sunny Europe was able to reduce its storage-space requirements, storing 1,640 square feet (500 square meters) of goods on 141 square feet (43 square meters) of floor space.