Carton direct handling succeeds in apparel distribution centres

Today big apparel distribution centres service several hundred shops, handle up to 50,000 cartons per day and ship millions of garments per week to their outlets and consumers. Fashion retailers have to deal with frequent new arrivals and quick replenishment in their shops as well as reduced logistics efforts at shop level.

Centralized distribution centre strategies fulfil highest requirements in global fashion retail

Central warehousing and picking facilities offer big advantages in terms of sharing resources, reducing stock volumes and increasing logistics service quality for the shops. Combining e-commerce and shop replenishment in one distribution centre has the same positive effect.

“Since 2009 we have used our new distribution centre in Hamburg including an automated carton warehouse and material handling system. We are very happy with this solution and have enjoyed the cooperation with TGW.”
André Heyden, H&M Logistik

TGW Apparel Logistics Solutions

• Solution 1 – manual picking processes for push- and pull-deliveries
• Solution 2 – cross docking and goods-to-man picking process
• Solution 3 – automated sorter picking

Automated Carton Warehouse Provides ROI in 1 – 2 years

TGW’s basic concept for apparel distribution centres is to directly handle the individual cartons throughout the installation, from goods receiving to dispatch, and to reduce the walking or driving distances for the workers drastically.

Reduced distances, no palletizing at goods receiving, no pallet handling

Incoming cartons are taken onto the conveyor system, identified and checked, and then buffered in a fully automated carton warehouse. This concept avoids the now unneeded palletizing process at goods receiving and manual handling of these pallets in a large block storage.

Full automated processes always just in time

In contrast the very cost effective carton warehouse in TGW’s solution replenishes the subsequent picking, sorting, or dispatch process fully automatically and always just in time. The higher investment pays off in 1 - 2 years.