Staples preps to roll out Kiva's MFS in Denver

Jeff Berman, Senior Editor -- Logistics Management, 1/24/2007

CHICAGO—Kiva Systems, a Woburn, Mass.-based developer of mobile order fulfillment systems for warehouses and distribution centers, announced at the ProMat 2007 show earlier this month that Staples will be implementing Kiva’s Mobile Fulfillment System (MFS) in its new facility in Denver.

This is the second MFS Staples has implemented. In January 2006, it implemented one in its Chambersburg, Pennsylvania distribution center. Staples Denver facility supports a direct delivery network and linehaul operations from east of Denver to Salt Lake City, Utah. Products at the Denver facility will go from linehaul to cross docks and then be delivered in trucks via Staples private fleet operation or UPS. The building is expected to be open by late spring.

The Kiva MFS is an automated storage and retrieval system that brings selected items to pick station operators at any time by using robotic units to route items and order containers to operator stations.

Staples will use the Kiva MFS in its Denver facility, but it will include Kiva’s ItemFetch platform for split-case picking and its OrderFetch platform, which transports completed orders from any operator to any shipping dock door, according to Kiva. The company added that the combination of these two platforms working together for Staples in Denver will provide various operational improvements, such as banding fulfillment operations with delivery operations.

In an interview at the 2007 ProMat show, Kiva founder and CEO Mick Mountz said that the new offerings to the MFS stemmed from customer demand. OrderFetch, he said, allows pick station operators to route totes or shipping containers. With this system, pick station operators can now pick from a mobile pod into a mobile pod that contains orders. And it also gives operators access to every product in a facility without moving.

“OrderFetch can go anywhere in the building,” said Mountz. “It provides loaders with access to all finished orders in a building. And it is improving overall speed for picking and shipping operations, along with order accuracy and flexibility.”

Mountz explained that while OrderFetch is key for delivering orders, CaseFetch completes the process by transporting pallets that enter a building and fork-loaded onto mobile pod bases at pick and drop locations. These pallets are then transported to storage areas by the mobile robotic pods.

Roger Will, vice president of transportation & logistics at Staples, told LM at ProMat that Staples expects myriad improvements with the new Kiva platforms at its 58,000 square-feet facility.

“With this system, we will have improved productivity along with the ability to get more products moving and out, which will increase throughput, make buildings last longer, and lower our overall capital expenditures,” said Will.