Chart success for SDI Greenstone
October 1st 2005

One of Europe’s biggest sellers of CDs, books and electronic games, Fnac has installed a specialised automated sortation system from SDI Greenstone at its Spanish national distribution centre.

The 10,000m2 NDC handles more than 60 million items per year. The SDI Greenstone installation is used to process large orders for CDs and DVDs, helping the company maintain a high turn-around delivery operation - around 50,000 items leave the NDC each day.

Handling orders over 200 items, the SDI Greenstone sorter comprises a large carousel that rotates above a series of drop stations, assigned to Fnac’s 11 Spanish stores, with spare stations to handle overflow.

The WMS generates a list of items that are required for the day’s store orders, and these items are loaded into a carrier at the sorter’s induct point.

Once items have been fed on to the sorter, the barcode labels are scanned and price labels printed and applied.

Using photocells, the sorter counts items as they travel round the carousel.

When an item reaches the appropriate station, a tripper plate is activated and the item discharged.

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