Interroll and Conveyor Handling of the United States provide efficient shoe sorting solutions

Conveyor Handling Company (CHC) has supplied a modular material handling system to its end user, Distribution Management Group (DMG), for a new distribution center in Cranberry, New Jersey, U.S.A. At the heart of the solution is Interroll’s advanced crossbelt sorter, which helps reduce electricity costs, simplifies maintenance processes, and makes product packaging and distribution more efficient.

CHC is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. Since 1975, they have provided an impressive range of solutions to customers in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing companies, e-commerce and retailers, healthcare and apparel manufacturers, including sales, service and design. Its past major projects include: cross-belt sorting systems, turnkey conveyor and rack installations, automated storage and retrieval systems, multi-level transportation channels, and even modular work cells and mezzanine racks.

Despite its deep expertise, CHC recently encountered a new challenge. One of its long-term customers, Distribution Management Group (DMG), was preparing to open a new factory in Cranberry, New Jersey, USA. As a third-party logistics company, DMG was responsible for sorting, packaging and shipping products for its customers in the footwear manufacturing industry, so it required material handling equipment to effectively handle and transport 100 shoe boxes per minute.

Interroll solutions bring new breakthroughs

Technically speaking, this is not an impossible task, but the method used was far beyond DMG's expectations.

Rich Rittermann, vice president of operations at CHC, explained: "DMG originally wanted us to design a distribution center based on its existing model. In this case, employees need to push carts to walk back and forth in each aisle and pick shoes; when the cart is full, the cart is sent to the central sorting area, and then other workers will take the boxes from different carts and pack them one by one according to the content of the order. There is nothing wrong with this process, but it involves a lot of manual labor. With the order volume predicted by DMG, the entire workflow will eventually become unmanageable. At my suggestion, DMG finally decided to adopt an automatic sorting system."

Rittermann had some knowledge of this system, but the volume of products to be processed this time was huge, and there were hundreds of color, size, and style combinations to consider, so he consulted the Interroll team. The Interroll team told Rittermann that they were optimizing a shoe distribution center in Mexico, and both parties believed that Interroll's horizontal cross-belt sorter was an ideal solution.

Reliable, energy-saving and easy to maintain

Traditional cross-belt sorters require motors on each conveyor to move the goods to the appropriate chute, while Interroll's solution uses pneumatic plates and drive wheels, which reduces electricity costs, simplifies maintenance and improves reliability. This gentle transportation method also allows Interroll cross-belt sorters to be used to transport products that require careful handling, such as eggs and yogurt, while also being strong enough to transport heavy materials, such as bagged grain or animal feed.

The system is both intelligent and accurate, automatically recirculating "no-read" or overloaded products. This is particularly important in the e-retail industry, where system demand is difficult to predict and customer returns are relatively high. In addition, Interroll's horizontal crossbelt sorter makes rational use of floor space. Its compact modular design is easy to reconfigure according to changing needs. In this case, the Interroll conveyor is designed as a double layer, which enables it to maximize system throughput without increasing floor space.

Give full play to expertise, work closely together, and seek win-win results

Rittermann said: "I am very satisfied with the cooperation between Interroll, DMG and the CHC installation team and project manager. For the customer, this project has brought a significant improvement to their business. The system currently used by DMG can ship 15,000 to 30,000 pairs of shoes per day, and there is still capacity for more. At the beginning of the project, DMG put forward the need for more efficient and faster equipment, hoping to achieve the same-day sorting and delivery of shoes, and the system provided by CHC perfectly meets this requirement."

John Roca, Vice President of DMG, said: "CHC has consistently provided high-value, high-quality conveyors, racks and material handling equipment for our multiple logistics distribution centers in New Jersey. In fact, CHC has become DMG's only choice for conveyor systems, sorters, material handling equipment and integration. CHC has a skilled team that can provide customers with practical solutions and reliable equipment, which is the foundation of what they do. In addition, they also provide quite complete after-sales service."