A Revolutionary Order Fulfillment System Combining Light Directed, Voice and Wireless Bar Code Scanning Technologies
US Patents 6,775,588 / 8,019,463

The FastFetch Multimodal Batch Picking System for Warehouse and Distribution Centers

What is FastFetch?

FastFetch is a unique picking system targeted at:

Piece or case picking - ideal for store replenishment or internet order fulfillment
Fast picking - typically more than doubling the speed of other technologies
Accurate picking - achieving virtually 100% accuracy
Low cost of ownership - typically with an ROI payback period from 6 to 12 months.

The FastFetch system uses:

Carts to batch pick multiple (up to 255) orders simultaneously
Voice commands to direct pickers to picking locations
Bar Code Scanning of location or product labels of low velocity items
Light Directed hardware to show pickers where and how many high velocity units to pick
Warehouse process flow

Ideally suited applications

Typical performance increase

PDA Mobile Computer or Tablet PC running the Windows mobile operating system
The SQL database system in both the PDA and the database server
An Optimizer PC running the standard Windows operating system to easily interface to any WMS or ERP system and to optimize order batching and warehouse routing.

For high velocity items, the system couples light modules on cart locations with light modules on picking bay locations to call fast and accurate attention to bay picking locations and cart putting (customer order) locations and to enable cluster picking.

For slow velocity items, the system uses voice commands to direct a picker to a bay location and a wireless Bluetooth scanner to scan the bar code on either the location or product to confirm correct picking. Light modules on the cart continue to designate correct placement into customer orders.

FastFetch can be configured to accommodate any combination of carts and bays, with or without light modules, to support a mix of fast and slow velocity item picking using one of several picking methods. The system is designed to be fault tolerant with its extensive "fail soft" design and supports the Bucket Brigade picking methodology with its Dynamic Zone picking capability. Web-based, performance management reporting comes standard with the system.

In summary, the FastFetch system combines the best features of several existing technologies with new optimization algorithms to provide a low-cost, highly effective and efficient system with an extremely attractive ROI.

View a short video of FastFetch in action or a longer instructional video.