Pick-by-Voice

What it is

Pick by Voice is a language based picking system. It is possible to pick without invoices or bills of order because the picker gets all the important data by voice response. The picker also has the possibility to communicate with the help of voice entry.



In warehouses where long distances have to be covered or when picking goods that have to be picked up with both hands, it is advantageous if the picker has his hands free and does not have to carry a pick list around.
The pickers have their hands and eyes free for their work. Earphones and microphone replace the classical terminal. Thanks to the increased freedom of action, the order picking process becomes more efficient.
When using pick by voice keyboard entries, watching the display and reading the list are all steps that are superfluous. The operator can concentrate entirely on his job.



If you want to learn more about what pick-by-voice is check out:
http://www.kbs-gmbh.de/en/beleglose_kommissionierung/#pick_by_voice

Pick-to-Light

This video gives a first impression how Pick-to-light works:



What it is

Pick-by-Light or Pick-to-Light is being used for commissioning by companies like Carrefour, Día, Nike, Gear for Sports and Champion and many more. It offers diverse advantages compared to manual picking techniques which usually require the presence of bills of delivery or invoices when the picking takes place.

If you want to know more about Trends in warehousing and Distribution check out this link:
http://www.impomag.com/scripts/ShowPR.asp?RID=7755&CommonCount=0

Pick to Light is acknowledged to be the fastest operator-based picking strategy available to execute broken case quantity order fulfillment operations.
It is ideal for team-based approaches like zone picking.
It can increase the pick rate productivity, accuracy and cost efficiency of this labour intensive operation by reducing the walk time, eliminating the reading errors and simplifying the task throughout the pick process.
Make faster and better decision responses with real-time visibility into all important activities, events and productivity statistics in real-time, presented through a sophisticated GUI featuring complete reporting tools.

If you want to learn more about pick-by-light in general and about the leading company in this are, Lightning Pick, check out this link:
http://www.lightningpick.com/pickToLight.html

Mercadona - Our Personal Perception

We love to go shopping at Mercadona because of the excellent price policy (SPB) and the products from Hacendado, Deliplus and so on are of a great quality.

So far we have tried many different products from Mercadona’s suppliers and we have only been disappointed by one product, which is muesli. The other kinds of muesli, however are very tasty.

Also, it is noticeable that the fresh leche semidesnatada is often not available when we go shopping late. This is also a little disappointing.
Nevertheless we like Mercadona very much as a supermarket and for sure, we will miss Mercadona when we go back to Germany :)

Austrian Company Provides Rolldocking for Mercadona Warehouses

Janina and I did some research on Mercadona and its logistics system. This post is about the Rolldocking system of Mercadona.

An Austrian company called TGW Logistics has developed a new system called Rolldocking for Mecadona. The company describes its solution in a document that is only available in German http://www.tgw.at/uploads/media/MERCADONA_DEU_02.pdf


In this blog, we have summarized the main facts about this new technology.

Mercadona's requirements:

• Delivery of articles in single-origin truck loads using europallets or half pallets


• Maximum weight per pallet: 1000 kg


• Minimizing the employment of staff


• Buffering at leat 1,5 truck loads per article


• First in - first out


• Loading up to 800 pallets daily

Mercadona Builds Kindergarten into Logistic Blocks

Janina and I did some research on Mercadona and its logistics system. This is the second post about Mercadona's kindergarten in the logistic blocks.

A German newspaper has reported that Mercadona makes place in its logistic blocks for kindergarten: http://www.lebensmittelzeitung.net/news/karriere/Mercadona-Ist-familienfreundlich_44749.html

In this block we have translated the most impressive facts:

In 2001 Mercadona inaugurates the first kindergarten in the logistics block in San Sadurní D'Anoia (Barcelona). Mercadona calls it also "nursurey". It is a place where trained personal looks for the children of employees for free. As it has been a successful venture, Mercadona concluded to build a kindergarten into all logistic blocks that are newly opened up.



The kindergarten of the logistics block in Albatera/ San Isidro (Alicante) provides 82 spaces per shift. A shift either takes from 6 to 2 or from 2 to 10 at night. To guarantee a proper child care, there are 14 educators with various qualifications (kindergartener, educator, pedagogue, and teacher) per logistic block.

Introducing Mercadona

Janina and I did some research on Mercadona and its logistics system. In total we have prepared 4 posts. This is the first one to introduce Mercadona.

Mercadona is a Spanish family-owned supermarket company whose objective is to fully satisfy the grocery, home cleaning, hygiene and pet products’ needs of its "Bosses". To this end the company has 1,264 local stores

• averaging between 1,300 and 1,500 square meters of retail space,


• representing a market share of 12.8% of the total food store retail space in Spain and


• contributing to the business dynamics of the areas in which they are located.


• Every one of these supermarkets has an ample and ef?cient selection that includes up to 8,000 different items located within easy reach of the over 4.3 million households that place their trust in the company every year.

See: http://descargas.mercadona.com/memorias2009/ING/Report09.pdf

Jochen has found the "canción de Mercadona", which we can always hear when we go shopping at Mercadona (and which we still sing 3 hours after shopping):





SPB = Siempre precios bajos

Mercadona has a special business model that is called siempre precios bajos, it means always low price in English. It is a formula that allows Mercadona's customers ("The Bosses") to buy products of the highest quality at the lowest prices on the market. That strategy matches what has always been the company’s motto for over 16 years: "Quality doesn’t have to be more expensive".


In total Mercadona works with more than 2,000 trade suppliers and service providers, over 100 of which are integrated suppliers, manufacturers of th Hacendado, Bosque Verde, Deliplus and Compy brands. Mercadona has long-term mutual cooperation and commitment relationship regulated by way of a Sound Business Practices Framework Agreement. This results in "contracts for life" and all of them are committed to the total customer satisfaction philosophy that is so important to Mercadona and which applies to both quality services and products.



Total Quality

Since 1993, Mercadona’s management model has been one based on Total Quality. Through this method Mercadona satis?es the company’s ?ve components with equal dedication: ‘The Boss’, The Employee, The Supplier, Society and Capital.

Mercadona's Logistics Blocks

Janina and I did some research on Mercadona and its logistics system. This post is about Mercadona's Logistics block in general.

A 620,000-square-metre network that supplies 1,264 supermarkets daily



Logistics Blocks

At the end of 2009 Mercadona had 1264 supermarkets that need to be supplied. In order to do this Mercadona uses a 620.000 square-metre logistical network.
One of Mercadona’s main goals is to reduce the impact of transportation on the price of products. They call this “transporting more for less” which also has the positive side effect of having a smaller impact on the environment.

In order to ensure the efficiency and optimization of its logistical network Mercadona plans to construct new facilities and to upgrade and improve existing structures during the following years. In order to do this more than 600 million euros are going to be invested.