A well-known Dutch fashion brand is the main customer of Radial’s distribution center in Groningen, the Netherlands. This ecommerce retailer introduces new products every Wednesday, resulting in a wide variety of SKUs and frequent changes to them.

They started outsourcing ecommerce fulfillment to Radial with a manual facility in Zwolle. However, from the very beginning, it was clear that this was a short-term solution. With tens of thousands of box locations, a vast array of products and late cut-off times, fulfilling all orders during sale or peak was a real challenge. Introducing automation to serve this customer was a necessity.

The biggest challenges of the manual fulfillment operations were:

The need for more efficient storage and increased picking productivity led Radial to seek a hybrid solution capable of handling bulky and small goods and a new location in the Netherlands. At quite an early stage, the AMR system was recognised as best for this line type.

After a thorough search, Radial partnered with Dematic, the intelligent automation technology supplier, a KION Group member, and their strategic partner, Quicktron. Radial moved operations to a modern, greenfield facility with a BREEAM very good certificate located in Groningen.

He adds: “The solution we developed with Radial plainly demonstrates what we can deliver in terms of innovative fulfillment solutions customized to specific customer requirements. Radial also benefitted from our end-to-end expertise when it comes to concept development, installation, and customer service.”

2021, Autumn: the start of work on the new automated solution.

2022, Autumn: the project was well underway. Construction of the racks had commenced, and the pick tower, utilizing ground-level shelves, had already been completed. Radial, in collaboration with Quicktron, began software testing.

2023, March: field testing on the floor was completed. Rigorous testing was essential as Radial couldn’t afford any downtime in operations for its fashion client.

2023, May: the system successfully went live.

The goods-to-the-person solution eliminates the need for employees to walk long distances. With AMR robots handling this task, the picking speed has greatly increased.

Previously, it took up to 2 hours to complete the picking line, but now, it’s a matter of minutes. This also resulted in substantial improvements in the packing operations.

Picking mistakes are reduced due to the AMR system presenting only one tote at a time, minimizing the chances of errors. However, some errors may still occur during stock inbound processes.

The system incorporates several intelligent features, such as prompting confirmation when a tote appears empty after picking the last item.

The installed AMR is operationally safe. Sensors and cameras detect obstacles and can reconfigure the route accordingly. In addition, the solution has powerful controls and software which allow AMR-s to make simple and quick adjustments during operation.

Processing fashion e-commerce orders in the Radial facility in Groningen takes three types of AMR-s.

Pallet-carrying AMR-s transport pallet racks from the pallet infeed stations to the storage area. From there, they are brought to any picking station on demand. The same robot also transfers moveable put-walls from a picking station to the appropriate packing station.

Vertical tote carriers transfer totes with received goods from the buffer zone to the respective rack storage locations (single or double deep). At the same time, they bring down any totes that contain goods to be picked down and put them in the buffer zone. The racking system has a capacity of approximately 64,000 totes for end-customer goods.

Horizontal tote carriers, the workhorses of the fleet, bring totes from the inbound area to the buffer zone under the racks and pick up totes from there that have goods that need to be picked and delivered at the required picking stations.

The system implemented by Dematic in Groningen includes the following solutions:

Processing stations

Quicktron Fleet

Storage