Mezzanine Solution in Pallet Racking Industry
1) Crossdocking: Up to 70% of incoming inventory has been pre-allocated to a store. And, 40% of those pre-built casepack cartons are loaded onto a roller conveyor for crossdocking, known as the "slapper line", that bypasses the order fulfillment system and conveys the cartons directly to the shipping sorter. Prior to induction in the sorter, they are automatically scanned and then diverted to a packing station. Cartons are then floor loaded onto a trailer.
2) Reserve storage: The remaining inventory is palletized for putaway into pallet rack in the reserve storage area. When available, pallets are putaway in an assigned location for a product; otherwise, the driver chooses an open location. Either way, the driver scans a bar code location label to confirm the putaway in the WMS.
3) Picking: Pallet rackings are pulled from the reserve storage area and delivered to the first level of the mezzanine where store orders using that inventory will be assembled. A typical shipping container holds 50 items. A bar code label with order information is applied to cartons, which are placed on a belt conveyor that serves the mezzanine and are transported to the second level. From there, they are transferred to zone conveyor that feeds a sortation system. Carton labels are automatically scanned and sorted to one of two put modules. When the carton arrives at a put module, the label is scanned again. A bidirectional belt sorter diverts the carton to a put zone within the module.
