Since going live in 2020, the 850,000-square-foot Skygate distribution centre has secured a number of benefits for The Very Group and its customers – including greater product availability, quicker order-to-dispatch times, faster returns and enhanced ability to handle peaks.

The automated picking, sortation and packaging technology from KNAPP means that orders can be ready for dispatch within 30 minutes, compared to around four hours at the online retailer’s previous fulfilment centres.

Designed for peaks

With Skygate responsible for the fulfilment of 95% of customer orders, KNAPP worked closely with The Very Group to ensure that the automation would be able to handle peak volumes with the required speed and accuracy. The logistics technology enables the pre-picking of orders on high-traffic days, which has helped the retailer to cope with peaks, such as Black Friday and Christmas. In addition, KNAPP’s intelligent KiSoft Analytics software plays a major role in optimising all processes at Skygate to maximise productivity. The software visualises all KPIs on clear dashboards in real time. As a result of these combined technologies, the warehouse can fulfil almost 15,000 orders per hour.

Sequencing is key

Key to both rapid order fulfilment and efficient returns processing at Skygate is KNAPP's pocket sorter system, which uses a matrix sortation algorithm to arrange products in RFID-enabled pockets into the correct sequence. Items are placed in the pockets at a series of workstations, where totes of product arrive automatically from KNAPP's Evo Shuttle storage system. Taking an item from a tote, the operator scans it and drops it into a pocket with a single swipe action.

One of the largest shuttle systems in Europe, the automatic store features over 400 shuttles and 642,000 storage locations. Combined with 120,000 pockets in the pocket sorter system and 26,000 pallet locations in the manual store, Skygate houses an inventory of 6 million items.

One-touch returns handling

The automated handling solution at Skygate also enables one-touch processing of returns, with products available for resale within 30 minutes and customer refunds provided faster than ever before. A vast dynamic buffer of pockets on the third mezzanine level of the warehouse makes returns processing a breeze and gives Skygate the capacity to handle 4,000 returned items per hour.

Also featuring a dispatch sorter with 96 destination chutes, the automated logistics solution is controlled by KNAPP's KiSoft suite of software. A team of KNAPP Customer Service engineers is based permanently at Skygate, carrying out comprehensive preventive maintenance and dealing quickly with any issues that arise.