Home to a fleet of robotic shuttles and the tallest conveyors in Southeast Asia, it takes just 20 minutes for an order in the 8-storey Blue Hub to be picked, packed and labelled - ready for delivery. Located in Singapore, the 50,000 sqm distribution centre features an innovative automation solution providing space-efficient storage with fast and accurate picking to meet the expectations of Bolloré Logistics’ clients.

Bolloré Logistics is a global leader in international transport and logistics as well as a Tier 1 partner to some of the world’s renowned brands. Its operations in Singapore are the largest in Asia-Pacific and form a key regional centre for the group.

Operating in Singapore since 1983, Bolloré has over 200,000 sqm of warehouse space spread over 14 sites, and offers comprehensive logistics solutions to a range of clients. Their new Blue Hub facility is the largest and most advanced of these.

With growing demand for E-Commerce, fierce global competition and increased consumer expectations of faster delivery times, retailers and brands have been ramping up their efforts to accelerate order fulfilment capabilities while keeping costs low.

To meet the increased demands of its clients, Bolloré Logistics started working with Dematic back in 2016 to provide an automated storage and order fulfilment solution for their Green Hub facility to increase speed, productivity and space efficiency. At that time, the 42,000 m2 distribution facility was Bolloré Logistics’ flagship site in Singapore.

With the success of Green Hub, the company planned another facility to support further growth of their business and to help them expand the number of clients they could service, particularly in the perfume and cosmetics sector. For its new Blue Hub facility, Bolloré Logistics and Dematic worked in partnership to drive further productivity improvements with a focus on solution innovation and the adoption of new technology. This included a pilot project comprising Dematic’s robotic picking cells which can support orders being picked, packed and labelled for despatch without the involvement of an operator.

Blue Hub was designed and built from the ground up to cater for business transformation in terms of omni-channel distribution, especially in the growing area of E-Commerce. “Now, goods are going from everywhere to everywhere,” said Mr Marcerou.

There were three main business drivers in mind when building this customised distribution centre. 

Mr Frederic Marcerou, Managing Director, Bolloré Logistics Singapore, said, “Dematic has helped us with other projects in Singapore, including our Green Hub DC. We have always been impressed with their quality of service and the quality of their solutions, so it was an easy decision for us to work with Dematic again on Blue Hub. They also provided in-depth training sessions for staff to understand how to use the system, and the team was there every step of the way to ensure that any challenges were quickly resolved.” 

The second one is in terms of productivity. We are able to be much more productive than we were in the past when pickers went into the aisles, to each shelf, doing manual picking.” 

And the third one, which is as important, is operational excellence. This system allows us to improve our operational excellence and the service we are giving to our clients.”

Dematic worked closely with Bolloré Logistics to design an automated solution that would deliver improved efficiency and provide the option to scale up operations for future growth. 

As part of the solution, Dematic set up a Dematic Multishuttle® automated storage and retrieval system. Products are placed in open totes, which are then stored in high-density racks. The system selects the best storage locations and shuttles automatically transport the incoming totes to designated rack locations. These towering racks reach the ceiling of the main storage floor, maximising the storage density of the warehouse.

Whenever there is an order to be fulfilled, the Multishuttle system automatically retrieves totes containing the required items. Totes are retrieved in a specific sequence and conveyed to the RapidPick goods-to-person (GTP) workstations where they are picked and placed into order containers. The operator stays in one place while items are delivered to their pick station in a precise sequence, increasing picking speeds and productivity by eliminating the need for the picker to travel.

At a single Dematic GTP System pick station, an operator can achieve extremely high rates and pick virtually error free. Dematic pick stations are also designed for employee comfort and safety. Operators only pick in an ergonomically optimised “golden zone” — there is no need to move hands above the shoulder or extend arms beyond a comfortable reach and no need to bend or twist.

The entire GTP system is designed with modular components and is highly flexible. Within Blue Hub, seven RapidPick workstations operate in the picking area, with the 4-aisle Multishuttle system supplying products at high rates. The system design allows Bolloré Logistics to easily turn on and off capacity and to suit operational needs, and provides flexibility to adapt to changes in SKU range and order profiles including both retail and E-Commerce orders.

An intelligent order tote and carton transport conveying system includes energy-efficient Spiralveyors to link the central order picking area with the client-specific operational areas. At over 40 m high, these Spiralveyors are amongst the tallest installed anywhere in the world.

The system provides not only very high-rate, accurate and ergonomic picking, but also supports efficient order packing and processing with automated carton assembly, lidding and labelling. Automated carton erectors create the cardboard shipping cartons for orders, with labels automatically applied at the point of induction. Once the order picking process is completed, the cartons are automatically closed and a tamper proof lid is automatically attached. From start to finish, an order can be picked and completed in as little as 20 minutes.

Dematic’s integrated warehouse control system also enables Bolloré Logistics staff to view orders, schedules and stock inventory status in one place. It provides staff with more data to help streamline their processes and optimise performance.