Xacus Transforms its Order Fulfillment Process with Modula Vertical Lift Modules

Case Summary

Founded in 1956, near Vicenza, Italy, Xacus is a renowned producer of shirts for both men and women. While the company exports its products to approximately 40 countries, the domestic market remains its primary focus. Xacus serves a diverse customer base, ranging from department stores to specialty shops and even end-consumers through its e-commerce platform. With the rise of e-commerce, Xacus needed to find a way to increase its picking speed from manual shelf picking to picking batch orders with more accuracy. A clean and organized area was also key to maintaining the integrity of the clothes and accessories shipped out of the warehouse.

The Challenge

Xacus faced a significant challenge in terms of efficiently storing semi-finished products, components, and shirt accessories. Thei company’s existing inventory management system relied on traditional warehouse shelving, which took up substantial space and resulted in inefficiencies. Retrieving individual items required extensive walking, often taking 6 to 7 minutes per order. The process involved manually searching for items based on codes, sizes, and colors. With the increase of online orders for varied SKUs, Xacus needed to change how they were processing orders, to keep up with the demand.

The Solution

In 2016, Xacus implemented two Modula Vertical Lift Modules (VLMs) ML50Ds. This marked a shift from a “man-to-goods” approach to a more streamlined and “lean” process. With the implementation of Modula VLMs, operators no longer need to walk up and down the warehouse to collect items. Instead, the Modula units autonomously retrieve items.

Even when fulfilling orders for the same shirt model and size for multiple customers, Modula’s automated solutions make it possible to collect several shirts at once, pre-sorted by customer requests. Orders can now be processed in both single and multiple batches, enhancing flexibility.

Upon receiving an order, operators simply confirm the order through the user-friendly Copilot interface. The warehouse management system (WMS) promptly activates the two Modula units, efficiently delivering the trays to the designated bay for picking. Notably, both Modula units work simultaneously to reduce waiting times.

The implementation of the Modula laser pointer further improves accuracy and efficiency. Operators can quickly identify the required items, allowing them to prepare up to 12 orders simultaneously.

As e-commerce continues to grow, Xacus continues to expand its operations, investing in additional Modula units for managing accessory materials and semi-finished products.

All articles are now systematically stored within Modula units, seamlessly integrated with the company’s ERP software. Once an order is received, it flows effortlessly into the Modula units, ensuring efficient and accurate order processing.

The transition to Modula VLMs marked a pivotal moment in Xacus’ journey towards a more agile and customer-centric operation.

Benefits of Modula VLMs for Xacus

• 2 ML50Ds store and organize semi-finished products, internal components, and shirt accessories
• Real-time inventory management integrates with WMS software
• Put-to-light batch picking allows multiple online orders to be filled at once
• Automatic delivery bay changed the picking process from “person-to-goods” to “goods-to-person”
• Increased picking speed from 6/7 minutes for a single order, to 3 minutes for multiple orders
• Laser pointer for easy and accurate picking