ROCKY MOUNTAIN ATV INTEGRATES THE OPEX® SURE SORT® SYSTEM INTO ITS DISTRIBUTION CENTER, REDUCING MANUAL LABOR BY 45%
The new automated sorting solution from OPEX and BoxLogix provides Rocky Mountain ATV with a more efficient and accurate e-commerce order fulfillment process.
The Background
Rocky Mountain ATV, headquartered in Payson, Utah, provides original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts for dirt bikes, ATVs, and street bikes. The company picks, sorts, boxes, and ships OEM parts to various customers from one of its distribution centers in Payson, Utah, or Winchester, Kentucky. Rocky Mountain ATV receives up to 6,000 orders per day, with the number of parts per order varying by up to one thousand. The company typically experiences a large peak season throughout the summer, beginning Memorial Day weekend. Rocky Mountain ATV also experiences a smaller peak season during the winter holidays.
The Challenge
Key Challenges
Goal to ship orders received before 5:00 PM the same day
Orders needed to be picked and sorted manually on a cart then boxed up for shipping
Need for denser item picking to fulfill and ship orders faster each day
The Solution
After a detailed analysis of Rocky Mountain ATV’s specific sortation challenges and SKU profile, BoxLogix recommended the OPEX® Sure Sort® as the ideal high-speed sorting system to meet their specific needs. To visualize its impact, BoxLogix worked with OPEX to organize a visit to an operational OPEX Sure Sort site in Las Vegas, where Rocky Mountain ATV saw the high-speed sorting system managing items efficiently and precisely. Soon after, the company implemented the system in its Kentucky distribution center along with the conveyor project it installed with BoxLogix.
The Sure Sort system was installed quickly, within a week and a half. Training on the new sorting system was easy and enjoyable for employees and allowed them to get up and running quickly. On a busy day, shifts of 5-9 people work on the Sure Sort. Subsequently, the system reduced the Kentucky distribution center’s labor needs to 10-15 people from the 20- 25 pickers originally required for its order fulfillment process, about a 45% decrease in labor.
On average, Sure Sort can sort 1,400 units per hour, reaching a maximum rate of 2,400 units per hour. For Rocky Mountain ATV, the Sure Sort easily sorts smaller OEM parts and rebuild kits for customer orders, such as gaskets, washers, nuts, and bolts. The sizes of these orders are typically between 10-25 units but can be upwards of a couple hundred units. Rocky Mountain ATV also frequently receives bulk orders from vendors and dealers for several rebuild kits. Since the system sorts orders directly to totes and notifies operators that an order is complete by lighting up the tote’s section, it removes the guesswork and improves order accuracy. Before automating, employees fulfilled 26 order boxes per hour. With Sure Sort, that number has risen to 40 boxes per hour.
“THE OPEX SORTATION SYSTEM HAS IMPROVED OUR SHIPPING ACCURACY TO AN IMPRESSIVE 99.97%, SIGNIFICANTLY ENHANCING OVERALL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION.”
Christopher Hill
Directo, Eastern Distribution, Rocky Mountain ATV
Key Results
45%
Decreased in labor for processing orders
67%
Increase in boxes of orders packed per hour
2400
Maximum units sorted per hour
The Future
Now that Rocky Mountain ATV has its new Sure Sort system running in its Kentucky distribution center, the company can easily handle increased customer demand during peak seasons and continue to deliver on its promise of same- day shipping. In the future, Rocky Mountain ATV is looking for additional applications where its Sure Sort system can continue to help its business.
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