How E2 Implemented a Warehouse Control System for Boot Barn

Boot Barn, the western and work wear retailer, expanded its e-commerce distribution center in Wichita, Kansas, and needed a warehouse control system (WCS) to run the new automation. E2 Solutions implemented the Körber WCS alongside the Körber warehouse management system Boot Barn already used. Logistics Viewpoints reported a 50 percent picking productivity improvement in the expanded area and about 25 percent higher throughput.

How E2 and Boot Barn Started

E2 first worked with Boot Barn in 2017, on the go-live of the Körber WMS at the Wichita facility. In 2019, Boot Barn’s VP of Supply Chain and E2’s CEO, Erik Easton, reconnected to talk about Boot Barn’s expansion plans.

The Expansion

Boot Barn added about 45,000 square feet to the Wichita facility, a 50 percent increase in space, with the goal of doubling unit storage capacity. It chose a goods-to-person design: conveyor across a three-level mezzanine, with 12 intelligent diverts feeding 48 pick zones.

Running that layout required a warehouse control system. Boot Barn chose the Körber WCS, implemented by E2, so the WMS and WCS came from one company with one provider responsible for the interfaces between them. The project took under a year, and the WCS portion under four months.

How the WCS Runs the Floor

The WCS keeps each of the 48 pick zones supplied with a target number of empty totes, 10 per zone. When an order drops, it sends an empty tote to the right zone, where a picker scans the tote and the order to pair them. The WCS then routes the tote onward: to packing, to another zone for the next pick, or to consolidation. Keeping a set number of empties in each zone keeps picking moving while leaving room for put-away.

A dashboard shows where empty and full totes are on the conveyor and how many are headed to each pick lane, so supervisors can step in during a spike in receiving. If a divert is blocked, the WCS reroutes totes around it.

The Results

Logistics Viewpoints reported a 50 percent picking productivity improvement in the expanded area over the prior operation, throughput up about 25 percent, lower cost per unit and substantially more storage capacity. Manual tasks such as tote delivery went away, and pickers can now combine picking and put-away in one trip (task interleaving).

Read the full article: Boot Barn Implements Intelligent Warehouse Automation and Control System (Logistics Viewpoints, March 31, 2021).

E2 also brought E2 Vision smart glasses to Boot Barn’s receiving team.

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