Tote Conveyor for Picking and Packing

Tote Conveyor for Picking and Packing: The PenCarrie Case Study

A tote conveyor for picking and packing keeps two loops running at PenCarrie, the UK's largest B2B supplier of workwear and textile promotional items. Ferag's ferag.skymove system links multiple picking zones directly to the pack benches, moving up to 800 totes per hour. The smooth-running conveyor technology from the Swiss material handling specialist cuts both order picking times and manual handling. Fast-moving SKUs can also be spread across several zones at once, easing pressure on individual pickers.

November 8, 2021

Project Challenge

Linking multiple picking zones directly to the pack benches
Removing the bottleneck of a separate consolidation area
Reducing manual handling involved in moving totes
Optimizing overall picking time
Freeing up floor space previously used for consolidation
Easing picker congestion by spreading fast-moving SKUs across more zones

The ferag.skymove solution

Ferag engineered two ferag.skymove loops that connect PenCarrie’s picking zones straight to the pack benches, removing the separate consolidation step altogether. Because totes move directly between zones and benches, pickers spend less time walking and more time picking. The same conveyor loops let PenCarrie spread fast-moving SKUs across multiple zones, so no single picking area gets overloaded during peak periods.

Results

PenCarrie now runs two ferag.skymove loops at a combined throughput of up to 800 totes per hour. Picking times have dropped, manual handling has fallen, and the floor space once used for consolidation is now free for other tasks. A tote conveyor for picking and packing built this way scales easily to further zones as order volumes grow.