Pick to Cartons

The Kiva material handling system enables operators to pick items and cases into cartons.  Robotic drive units bring inventory pods to workers who use a simple pick-to-light/put-to-light interface to fill each order - the operator completes the entire order without moving and typically picks multiple orders at the same time. In addition, the system controls the sequence in which items are retrieved, allowing heavy-to-light box loading or item grouping within the container.  Kiva customers pick directly into bags, boxes, envelopes and other cartons on a daily basis.  Picking encompasses multiple configurable workflow options and supporting processes.

Features of Kiva's Picking to Cartons

Fast Picking -  The operator is presented with a new pick face location every six seconds, as if they had infinite pick face density with zero walking.  Picks can be from inventory shelving pods or from full pallets on pod pallet bases.

High Volume Order Picking - Kiva customers pick 100,000's of lines per day into boxes, bags and envelopes for direct-to-consumer and business-to-business shipments using the Kiva order fulfillment system.

Flexible Carton Induction - Inducting cartons into the pick process can be done in several ways.  Some customers employ carton induction stations where workers build boxes and label them for specific orders based on integration with a WMS that indicates carton size.  They then place the cartons on shuttle racks that move that shuttle the empty boxes to pick stations and the full boxes to finishing and/or shipping stations.  Some customers create the cartons at the pick station either before they start picking, in which case they pick directly into the box, or after they have accumulated the items for the order on a table or shelf, which allows them to select the best shipping box, bag or envelope after staging the complete order.

Pick Verification - The pick-to-light, put-to-light and barcode scanning tasks are configurable to suit a customer's specific workflow.  Some customers scan every item upon every pick.  Some customers only scan one item when multiples of the same are ordered, and then confirm the quantity via the station computer screen or rack light buttons.  Pick verification methods ensure both the correct items and quantities are picked.

Finishing - Finishing activities include adding packing materials and taping cartons, inserting packing slips, and other documents and carton labeling.  Here again, the Kiva solution is flexible.  These types of tasks can be completed for individual cartons at pick stations or the completed orders can be sent to finishing stations or shipping stations where specialized equipment is utilized for efficiency.

Value-added Services - Value-added Services such as gift wrapping, embroidering, custom labeling, and other order specific and product specific customization can be worked into any customer picking workflow.  Orders can be routed for picking at stations outfitted to provide value-added services or completely picked orders can be sent from pick stations to special value-added services stations depending on the customer's requirements.

Automated Shipping - Completed orders can be moved from pick stations to shipping via several methods.  Cartons can be pushed back from pick stations onto take-away conveyors.  Cartons may be carried on shuttle racks and delivered to manned shipping stations.  Kiva also offers a fully automated shipping solution whereby the completed cartons travel on a pod to a station where they are scraped onto a powered conveyor which carries them directly into the back of a waiting truck or parcel van without any human intervention.