Shimano Savoye PTS picking tray system

Shimano Europe Holding BV, a leading manufacturer and distributor of cycling and fishing equipment and accessories, has signed an agreement with Savoye, a division of Groupe Legris Industries and supplier of automated warehouse and logistics solutions.

Savoye will design and build an advanced PTS Picking Tray System at Shimanos European distribution centre in Nunspeet in The Netherlands. The PTS Picking Tray system will become operational in November of this year. Shimano expects the new warehouse system to pay for itself within three years.

Following a thorough evaluation of available systems, Shimano has selected the Savoye PTS Picking Tray System as the most flexible and most suitable system for its needs. Key to this decision is Savoyes revolutionary and cost-effective shuttle-system. The Savoye PTS consists of several autonomous powered shuttles that use capacitors instead of the usual banks of batteries or cabled racking, in order to increase modularity and make maintenance easier.

Not only is this solution more effective the shuttle is charged every time it passes a charging point but it also uses substantially less energy than battery-powered systems. Also, there are no environmentally hazardous batteries to discard at the end of their lifecycle.

In all, this means that the Savoye PTS Picking Tray System is a very green solution. The PTS Picking Tray System to be built at Shimanos centre will consist of several rows of rails-equipped racks connected through elevators and conveyor belts which transport the products (trays + totes) to two picking and one replenishing station. An intelligent by-pass system will ensure an optimal flow of goods to the picking stations. In total the system will store 15,000 totes, spread over 5 aisles about 40 metres in length. The system will be built 9 metres high and will contain 20 running shuttles.

Shimano is very pleased with the collaboration with Savoye and with the flexibility and swift responses the company has demonstrated throughout the process. The collaboration with Savoye has been outstanding and were pleased to move forward with them, so we can start the actual deployment and get the system operational by November 2009, says Marc van Rooij, president of Shimano Europe Holding B.V. The new PTS Picking Tray System will enable us to continue to grow our business while at the same time enabling us to cut costs and improve efficiency.

We are extremely proud that Shimano has chosen Savoye to build the advanced warehousing system they need to support their expanding order portfolio, says Hans de Sutter, sales director Benelux for Savoye. This is one of the most significant implementations of Savoye's PTS PickingTray System in Europe. We look forward to the successful completion of this project and to extending the already excellent collaboration with Shimano.

Shimano has seen a substantial and solid annual growth of 10-15% over the past ten years and expects this growth to continue for the foreseeable future. Also, Shimano will add France to the list of European countries it already serves directly: the Benelux region, Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden and Finland), Italy, Germany and the UK. The resulting increase in the flow of goods requires that the company moves from its current manual man-to-goods picking system to a more efficient and fully automated goods-to-man solution.

Shimano will redeploy employees that are currently assigned to warehouse-tasks, to other positions within in its logistical chain.