US-based online retailer Zappos.com needed to find a way of controlling costs at its distribution centres while still fulfilling tens of thousands of orders a day.

Alliance Healthcare has increased efficiency at its Exeter distribution centre after installing BITO’s Carton Live Storage (CLS) system which locates product nearer to where it needs to be picked.

Home textile supplier Welspun has improved stock control and order picking performance at its Manchester facility following the introduction of Chess Logistics Technology’s Empirica warehouse management application with RF-based barcode scanning.

Catalogue giant JD Williams has gone live with Dematic’s pick-to-voice system at its Shaw site near Oldham, which is expected to reduce pick errors by 65 per cent.

John Lewis is now able to achieve up to 1,000 picks per man hour after implementing pick-to-light and put-to-light technology from Knapp.

Time to be narrow-minded

The Princess Royal presents a gift to John Harvey CBE, who is standing down as chairman of the Transaid board of trustees after ten years, at an event to celebrate the charity’s work in northern Nigeria.

All being well, we can expect to see National Skills Academy Logistics opening its doors later next year.

Are there flaws with your floor? It’s probably the most frequently used piece of equipment in a warehouse, but all too often people simply look down on it. Lucy Tesseras reports.

The growth of online retail and the development of new technologies, such as vision-based systems, is set to change the face of picking. Lucy Tesseras casts an eye over the options.