Tulips optimizes its e-grocery order fulfillment with 6 Modula VLMs

Case Summary

Tulips, the first Italian e-grocery pure player, consolidates inventory storage & speeds up e-grocery order fulfillment with vertical storage solutions

Tulips is the first e-grocery pure player in Italy with a true dark store that offers delivery within 3 hours of ordering. The purchase is made only online, with the option of receiving it at home or picking it up at the store.

With the rapid growth of online grocery sales, they needed to find a goods-to-person technology that would enable them to consolidate their storage, while optimizing their e-grocery order fulfillment to offer fast, error-free orders. Thanks to the implementation of 6 Modula MC50D Lifts and a mobile picking cart, Tulips has maximized its warehouse storage capacity, reduced operator travel times, and speeded up e-grocery order fulfillment with a seamless connection to its ERP system.

The challenge

Improve warehouse picking time and reduce order preparation costs

As with many retailers today, Tulips had to find a way to meet shoppers’ demands for quick home delivery and curbside/in-store pick. To do this, it is crucial to have systems in place that allow for rapid, accurate order picking in a way that maximizes space and minimizes labor. Even with trying to improve the routes through the warehouse shelving, Tulips had to increase their picking speed while operating within their current space. If they were able to improve their picking time, the cost of preparing orders would be decreased, which would also reduce customer costs.

The solution

Six Modula vertical lift modules and mobile picking cart provide speed and accuracy while lowering the e-grocery order fulfillment cost

To continue the process of time optimization, Tulips started looking at automation and robotics. When researching automation within warehouses, they realized that automated vertical warehouses were the right solution because they drastically reduce picking times while optimizing current storage space.

Thanks to the implementation of 6 Modula MC 50 D Lift, Tulips has maximized their warehouse storage capacity, reduced operator travel times, and speeded up e-grocery order fulfillment with a seamless connection to their ERP system.

“Modula technology,” says Enrico Martini CEO of Tulips, “has been integrated perfectly with software that controls all phases: from the e-commerce platform through the entire management of the warehouse. For now, we only store products at room temperature in the Modula units, but we plan to buy Modula Climate Control units to store fresh products in 2023.”