Baking&Snack - May 2013 - 86

DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

No two bakeries’ distribution areas are alike;
therefore, software and hardware systems are
customized to fit each bakery’s needs and spaces.
ToolBox Software North America

and hand scanning to facilitate order fulfillment, tracking and tracing
to delivery. “Many traditional warehouse technologies don’t cope well
with specific dynamics we deal with
in baking,” he said. “In fact, only one
type of technology, put-to-light, has
proven to deliver the one-year ROI
everyone is looking for.”
At the heart of Pcdata’s suite of
solutions is Distrib, a paperless
dispatch software that works with
both put-to-light systems or voice
headsets.
DispoTool from ToolBox uses
either pick-to-light or put-to-light
paperless dispatching, both of which
are designed to improve productivity

and picking accuracy, Mr. Ulmer said.

Understanding pick and put
Pick-to-light distribution assigns a
specific position to every product,
whereas a put-to-light system dispenses products to customers or

Using robotics in distribution
Although people are still responsible for most of the picking and staging in
fresh bread shipping, robotics may represent the future as they are tested in
other bakery categories.
“Running a profitable manual or semi-manual picking operation has
become increasingly challenging for managers who are faced with skilledlabor shortages, high-product turnaround, order inaccuracy, security and a
great deal of conditioned warehouse space, said Derek Rickard, distribution
”
systems manager, RMT Robotics, Grimsby, ON.
The company developed several flexible robotic gantry picking solutions
that can be used with either corrugate case- or crate-held products. “Our
solutions are designed to completely automate case and layer picking in
high-SKU, high-rate operations by combining large and fast gantries with a
network of conveyor and integrated support equipment, he said. “Cases or
”
crates are received and temporarily stored on the floor under gantries and
then selectively picked to fulfill orders.
”
Bakeries in Finland have partially or even fully automated order filling using
robots to select the product as it comes off the production line, said Marc
Braun, president of Pcdata, East Granby, CT. The driving forces behind such
large-scale automation are high labor rates and safety standards, he added.
However, while automated order filling has not infiltrated US fresh
bread bakeries, Mr. Braun observed that cake producers have gravitated
toward these solutions because products have higher margins and the box
packaging is easier to automate.
Although ToolBox Software North America does not manufacture robots,
the St. Paul, MN-based company will integrate them into its picking solutions, according to Ralf Ulmer, executive vice-president of sales.

/ Baking & Snack / May 2013

routes. Both generally use multicolored lighted displays to direct workers in shipping areas, and because
they increase efficiency compared
to paper-based systems, the number
of people required in shipping can
generally be reduced by one-third,
according to Mr. Ulmer.
The put-to-light Distrib matches
customer orders against production. The operator selects a product
by scanning the barcode on the bag
or typing in the product code and
confirming the number of products. “This will trigger the displays,
hung throughout the shipping area,
to show how much each customer
should receive,” Mr. Braun explained.
“Different operators use different colors on the displays. When the operator has passed all the displays, he or
she should have nothing left.”
Using a workstation or handhelds,
operators confirm they have finished
that stack. The transaction is then
recorded in real time and the order
status updated. “The shipping supervisor can see what the status is of the
order filling for the day at one glance
of the screen,” he observed. “At the
close of the day, the bakery will know
how much product was put out to
each customer and how much was
delivered versus the day’s orders.”
Using Pcdata’s Production Count
module, production totals are automatically logged, and Mr. Braun said
bakeries can review discrepancies to

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Baking&Snack - May 2013

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