Robotics For Fast Fashion Shipping in E-Commerce

From Staufenberg in Lower Saxony, DHL Supply Chain handles, among other things, the nationwide e-commerce business of fashion retailer Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf and also ships to end customers in Austria, Poland and the Netherlands. This includes receiving new goods and returns, storing the 3.5 million fashion items, picking orders, packing and shipping the goods to end customers. The 6,000-square-meter “AutoStore” from robotics specialist Element Logic is one of the largest fully automated storage and retrieval systems in Germany. It is located in one of the five halls, each with 10,000 square meters and 50 loading bays, of the logistics center that DHL Supply Chain operates for various customers. Thanks to the AutoStore system, inventory can be controlled throughout and high efficiency in storage and retrieval can be ensured, according to DHL Supply Chain. The interaction of the flexible and modularly expandable robotics solution and on-site employees shortens the turnaround time of individual customer orders from the time they are placed to the time they are shipped, improving operational efficiency and easing workflows for employees, the logistics service provider explains.

The AutoStore enables space-saving storage and fully automated picking of items, it adds. It consists of an aluminum frame in which the current stock of goods is stacked and stored in 196,000 plastic bins on 16 levels. Above the containers, the aluminum frame forms the so-called grid, on which 160 robots fully automatically assemble the ordered goods according to the individual orders. At 21 ports, the goods are then further processed by employees and prepared for shipping.

“We are delighted to be supporting the omnichannel growth of our long-standing customer Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf with this automated solution, thus further strengthening our trusting collaboration and investing together in a successful future. E-commerce is one of our strategic growth sectors at DHL Supply Chain. Therefore, this implementation is another important building block in our expansion in this area and with regard to our automation strategy,” explains Rainer Haag, CEO DHL Supply Chain Germany & Alps.

Important milestone for Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf

“The new AutoStore warehouse system in Staufenberg will enable us to meet the needs and expectations of our customers even better and to cope with steadily growing orders with greater speed and reliability. This is an important milestone for our vision of becoming Europe’s leading multi-brand omnichannel retailer for fashion by 2026,” says Marco Rebohm, Managing Director of Mode Logistik GmbH & Co. KG, which as a subsidiary of the Peek & Cloppenburg group of companies manages the logistics of the multi-brand fashion retailer.