Matthews Automation Solutions’ brands Lightning Pick and Pyramid are featured as part of Modern Materials Handling magazine’s July 2015 cover story on eBay Enterprise’s Walton, Kentucky distribution campus. The article, “eBay: Speed, flexibility and cost,” describes how the facility—operated as a third-party logistics (3PL) e-fulfillment services provider—added automation to boost productivity and accuracy in order fulfillment.
Among the various automated solutions in action, eBay Enterprise’s Craig Hayes, vice president of fulfillment (pictured on the magazine cover above), explains how the Lightning Pick light-directed picking system is used, under the supervision and direction of Pyramid’s Director warehouse control system (WCS):
“We’re using RF-directed batch picking to a tote in the mezzanine that is then put on a conveyor to the put-to-light area,” Hayes says. There, lights direct associates on one side of the wall to place items in a specific cubby. When all the items for that order are in a space, a light on the other side of the wall alerts a packer that the order is ready to process for shipping. “With a mezzanine and put wall, it’s fairly inexpensive to add more bin space or another cubby if the business changes,” Hayes says.
