Bay with Lights
and
Cart without Lights

The extreme flexibility of FastFetch enables the system to be used to pick single orders without a cart and with lights on bays.  This usage is ideal for picking cases of product where the cases look almost identical and accuracy is important.  Light modules adjacent to cases will enable faster searching for the target location of the product since the picker can quickly spot a flashing light.  Accuracy is virtually 100% since product must be picked at the location adjacent to the flashing light and with a quantity shown in the numeric display.

 Example Application with a Forklift as the Cart

An auto parts company ships replenishment cases of oil to its retail stores based upon point-of-sale data. A picker uses a man-aboard fork lift to carry a pallet through the picking area and stacks cases onto the pallet as they are picked.  In this example, the "cart" is the pallet, with a single location, and the bays contain products with light modules.  Using a FastFetch PDA mounted on the forklift, the picker is directed to a product location with voice commands, and when reached, the quantity of cases shown in the numeric display of the light module are retrieved.  The flashing light on the bay light module is touched (or the product bar code is scanned) to confirm correct picking.   Acknowledgement of placement of picked products on the pallet can be made by scanning an "OK" bar code on a wrist band, touching a flashing light on the cart, pressing a button on the PDA or using a timeout on the PDA.  The simplest method however is to not require an acknowledgement since the only choice is to put the picked product(s) on the pallet.  In all these options, the PDA will use voice commands to direct the picker to pick additional SKUs on the bay or to "MOVE ON" to another bay.

Regardless of the configuration used with FastFetch, the same PDA hardware and FastFetch software are used.  The selection of configuration is sent in the downloaded data from the WMS or ERP and FastFetch adapts its usage automatically to the correct configuration.

Click here to see how FastFetch can be used in other cart and bay configurations.