Dematic has been awarded a contract by Associated Grocers of New England to provide a new order fulfillment system that will be used to replenish food and merchandise items to grocery retailers. The solution will allow Associated Grocers of New England to increase the scope of products offered as well as improve the efficiency of the retail store replenishment process. It will be implemented at the existing Associated Grocers of New England distribution center in Pembroke, N.H.
The order fulfillment system features Dematic Multishuttle inventory staging technology, as well as “goods-to-person” pick stations. General merchandise and food items, to be distributed to retail stores throughout New England, will be received at the distribution center and staged in the Multishuttle. When the order assembly process begins, inventory is automatically removed from the Multishuttle and delivered to work stations. The warehouse staff will pick items from the inventory containers at the ergonomically designed workstations instead of traveling throughout the warehouse to pick product.
Mike Bourgoine, Associated Grocers of New England President and CEO, said that the expansion was due to "our growth in products, services and customers. With the increase in SKUs over the past decade, we needed to reduce the number of "touches" to increase our efficiency and maximize the use of our square footage. This automated technology will help to support additional item growth in a small footprint, offering our customers a vastly expanded selection of food products."
"The solution engineered by Dematic will create logistics results while supporting additional specialty food items and improved service to store customers. With the implementation of modern methods such as high density staging of inventory along with ergonomic work stations, Associated Grocers of New England will realize the benefits of a compact system footprint along with efficient and accurate order processing," explains Ken Ruehrdanz, manager of the distribution systems market for Dematic.
The Multi-Shuttle system will take up less than 5,000-square-feet of the expanded warehouse and provide over 10,000 pick facings, which is equivalent to approximately 60,000-square-feet of traditional warehouse space.
Associated Grocers of New England, Inc. is the largest retailer-owned, wholesale grocery Distribution Center in New England, serving the needs of Independent Retail Grocers of every store size and format; such as, multi-store independent supermarket groups, community supermarkets, country stores, and convenience retailers.
