Sorting system for Mexx outlet shops

Mexx is a global lifestyle brand, founded in 1980. Mexx offers a wide range of fashion apparel and accessories for women, men and children as well as non-apparel items. Mexx products area vailable internationally via multiple channels: wholesale, retail and home shopping. Mexx has over 10,000 selling points in more than 65 countries on 4 continents.

In Roosendaal, the Netherlands, DHL operates a distribution centre for Mexx, which handles returns from Mexx shops in Western Europe, as well as obsolete items from other distribution centres. Returned items are sorted and shipped to outlet stores. On the ground floor, incoming goods are scanned, packaged in plastic bags, sealed and put into cartons. Full cartons are either placed in pallet storage or put on a conveyor, which takes them to the induct areas on the first floor. Items are manually inducted onto the CROSSORTER. Products are sorted in three steps. As a first step returned items are sorted to season-product line combinations. Secondly items are sorted by style/colour. Finally all
items are sorted into individual orders.

Vanderlande Industries was asked to develop and implement the material handling system, incl. the Warehouse Control System. The company was chosen out of 11 competitors because of its reputation, know-how, experience and the overall quality of the proposed solution.

Main benefits of the material handling system:
Smooth, easy to manage process
High productivity - Induct capacity 1,200 items per hour per operator
High accuracy
Sortation directly into shipping cartons

System
CROSSORTER 600 with 2 separate induct areas
Capacity : 9,000 items per hour
Number of SKUs : 150,000
Number of order lines per year : 770,000
24-36 items per carton (carton dimensions: 600 x 400 x 400 mm)
Operational hours: 5 x 10 hours per week
Vanderlande Industries VISION Warehouse Control System

Process
Returned goods are checked, scanned, put into plastic bags, sealed and put in cartons
Full cartons are either put in pallet storage or transported directly to the sorter
Items are manually inducted onto the CROSSORTER
Central scanning above the sorter by 2 scanners
Items are sorted directly into shipping cartons via 180 outfeeds
Full cartons are transported by conveyor to the shipping sorter
Cartons are weighed and labeled, shipping documents are added and cartons are closed
Completed cartons are automatically sorted into pallet loads according to their final shipping destination