Future Supply Chain Solutions Limited (FSCSL) is a 3rd party logistics service provider which handles the supply chain needs of the Future Group, one of India’s largest retailers

As it was a greenfield project, we understood the business requirement of the customer by visiting their existing warehouses and understanding the nuances of the operations. On the shop floor, we performed the actual picking process with the customer in their existing warehouse and also analyzed the data of picking, dispatch and the SKUs being handled for last three months to identify critical patterns in their operations. Through our extensive research and benchmarking about other organized retail warehouses, we inferred that the process had to be designed in such a way that the warehouse can manage the cross flow of material as well as the break pack operations in an efficient manner.

We first finalized the flow of the material through the warehouse. Also, we partnered with the customer to understand and identify the SKUs mix properly, especially the food and non-food items. The solution was finalized as a process where break pack items (items that had to be picked by opening the case)  will be picked through a batch picking process and then they will be sorted to different stores through Put-To-Light (Rapido) based sortation. Multiple put walls enabled with PTLs were designed, which could be dynamically allocated to different categories like Food and Non-Food. To take the crates to these put walls, a network of smart conveyors was established, to ensure that the pickers would not have to walk to perform the sorting operations. Rapido was provided with multiple functionalities like ease of integration, multi-colored lights, ease of installation to name a few.

Along with order mix information, we recommended dynamic mapping of the store for the sorting operation to the put wall and incorporate the feature of zoning and sub-zoning to create more flexibility.

The project included the installation of 300+ Rapido (Pick to Light) and more than 300 mts of Smart Conveyor network (Including accumulation conveyors & non-accumulation conveyors) powered by our Mobinity (WCS). Aided by world-class manufacturing facility, we were able to manufacture and supply all the automation equipment in a record time of 8 weeks. Simultaneously, the Functional Specification Document (FSD) was finalized in close collaboration with the customer and Mobinity (WCS) was quickly configured as per the same. A multi-disciplinary team of qualified engineers were deployed on the site to ensure fast installation and quick ramp up. We provided the customer with the best in class design, supply, installation, training, debugging, startup, and support of the interfaces with their WMS.

We were there to handhold the customer and provide initial support during the go-live and ramp up. Post Go-Live, new business requirements were incorporated through structured change requests in a quick and smooth manner. Extensive documentation including products manuals and support documents were provided to the customer capturing all the process in detail along with video instructions on how to perform various operations on the equipment. Critical Spare parts were provided on site to the customer and a dedicated 24*7 support was provided in the ramp up period with qualified engineers to help in the warehouse operations. Also, regular remote support for the customer was provided after the ramp up and after our engineers left the site of operation.