The ball runs faster than the player: the “Goods to Person” philosophy in the storage operation

The year 2022 is special because it is a year of the World Cup. While we are doing simulations to calculate how much we will spend on stickers or preparing the sweepstakes, the strategies to reach the dreamed hex also come to mind. I then remember a phrase by former player Anderson, a great hero of the Battle of the Afflicted, who once said that Brazilian football needed to keep in mind that “the ball runs faster than the player”. The logic behind that phrase makes a lot of sense: more speed in approaching the opponent's goal and more rested players to endure the 90 minutes. It is interesting to understand that this principle applies to different contexts, and in the field of storage, a philosophy based on the same principle has been established, the “Goods to Person".

As the name implies, instead of collecting the products primarily by operators who travel to the structures, the objective is to take the product to the employees, streamlining the operation and minimizing human displacements, with gains in productivity and ergonomics. In contexts of operations with tens or hundreds of thousands of daily orders, more and more speed is needed to meet more challenging service goals and more traditional picking processes would demand an excessive amount of workers to achieve the expected result.

There are several structures and technologies designed for this purpose. The most common of these is an individual picking, which receives boxes with products from the stock through conveyor belts or robots, leaving an operator who is at this station only to assemble the order, indicated by screens or light signals. This type of arrangement allows a single operator to carry out up to 1.000 product collections per hour, making separation extremely agile and efficient. There are also other structures, such as vertical or horizontal carousels, which search for the product in stock and rotate shelves until it arrives at the station.

Video 1: Examples of technologies “Goods to person“, used to minimize the displacement of people and collect products more quickly. Source: Dematic

In addition to productivity in the process of picking, other advantages can be easily perceived with the “Goods to Person”. Reducing workers' commuting reduces the likelihood of accidents and reducing fatigue has positive impacts on both productivity and quality of life. Another interesting point is that the complete stock is isolated from most operators, also mitigating the risk of theft and damage.

Some warning points, however, are worth mentioning. In addition to the high cost that some of the structures may have, requiring a good investment feasibility study, an inadequate assembly of the layout can generate losses in terms of flexibility, since the stations are fixed and the movement depends on the capacities of the equipment. Therefore, it is important to have redundancy alternatives in case of specific products or machinery failures.

In addition to being the year of the World Cup, 2022 also marks the return of the ILOS face-to-face meeting with the logistics and supply chain community, through the 28th International Supply Chain Forum. The event, which can also be followed online, will take place between October 18th and 20th, and will feature a content trail on innovation and technology in logistics and supply chain. Registration is now open.

References:

– Dematic – Dematic Goods to Person Picking

– Warehouse Automation – Goods-to-Person Picking