The new EziBuy Distribution Centre at Palmerston North, New Zealand, is the biggest of its kind in the southern hemisphere. The size of nine rugby fields, EziBuy uses Voice Picking technology to match customer orders against products in the warehouse for shipment to customers in Australia and New Zealand.
The centre also features a two-and a-half kilometre long smart conveyor system. Construction of the new distribution centre allowed EziBuy to consolidate operations from multiple sites, eliminating unnecessary double handling and significant costs and giving the company a solid platform from which to further grow the business.
The challenge: bring EziBuy's order fulfilment under one roof
Dematic's job was bringing all of EziBuy's order fulfilment requirements under one roof and implementing advanced automated logistics solutions within twelve months. The new distribution centre is the first in New Zealand to use cutting edge voice activated technology in combination with a paperless warehouse management system, and an extensive 2.4 km long conveyor belt system to handle the capacity to house of over 200,000 shipping cartons.
EziBuy formerly distributed, on average, around 30,000 items per day. The new international distribution centre will allow to distribute up to 83,000 items per day with a significant increase in picking accuracy and quality.
The solution:
The Dematic solution links into wireless technologies including Voice Picking, and interfaces all of the automated materials handling equipment into a single order fulfilment system. Dematic's software also allows different picking methodologies to be applied to different zones, optimising the cost benefits, yet still providing a single user interface and a single host interface for all orders to be assembled. Split-case orders are picked into postal bags transported within captive (in-house) totes to fulfil approximately 85% of orders. Orders that do not fit into the standard postal bag need to be repacked.
The results are in
EziBuy now despatches on average 9,000 parcels a day to Australasian shoppers and employs over 650 team members.
