Food Subscription

The personalized delivery business of the Co-op in Japan is the forerunner of the online supermarkets and subscription-based food delivery services that have been growing rapidly in recent years. The Co-op has long been in the business of providing one-stop, individualized home delivery of products related to daily life, ranging from fresh foods, frozen foods, bread, beverages, and daily sundries. In 1986, Daifuku developed the pick-to-light system Digital Pick System for the Co-op, which has helped to improve the efficiency of its order preparation and reduce errors. Today, Daifuku has introduced a variety of additional variations and peripheral equipment to provide "efficient and accurate" picking solutions for a wide range of industries.

In general, the Co-op and food subscription businesses have the following logistical characteristics.

The number of SKUs handled is relatively small, and the order hit rate for the fast moving items is high.
A higher number of items purchased per order compared to general e-commerce.
Since many of the products handled are perishable items that cannot be stocked for a long period, rapid order preparation work is vital.
In cases where daily commodities are also handled, order consolidation work with food items is required.

Because of these characteristics, the key to improving logistics efficiency is how to perform the order preparation of the fast moving items.

Order Preparation Line Model System

Let's take a look at some examples of order preparation lines for high-frequency products, one for a Co-op-type returnable container shipping model and one for a one-way cardboard box shipping model.

Shipping by Returnable Container

(1) The bag inserting machine automatically attaches plastic bags to the collection boxes and feeds them to the Eye-Navi line.
Shipping by Carton

(1) The box-making machine automatically assembles corrugated boxes of the size specified in the order. After labeling, the boxes are supplied to the Eye-Navi line.

(2) Eye-Navi, a high-throughput digital picking system, efficiently picks high to medium-frequency items such as popular basic items and meal kits.

(3) By supplying the slow-moving items that have been picked in advance by Jungle Cart to the Eye-Navi line side, order preparation of fast-moving products, slow-moving products, and flyers among other items can be completed.

(4) After adding freezer packs as needed, a lid is attached.
The sealing machine automatically closes the lid of the box and fixes it in place with tape. A version that can automatically adjust the height of the corrugated boxes according to the height of the contents is also available.
Stacking machines stack the cases on carts, which workers will transport to a truck for shipping.
After an automatic labeler attaches a shipping label, a conveyor or sorter transports the case according to shipping destination.

When your business grows to the point where you can no longer keep up with only fixed shelves and WMS, Daifuku's intralogistics solutions will help you solve the problem.