Polaris Sees 150% Faster Pick Rate with AutoStore

Polaris has been helping people discover the joy of being outdoors since 1954. We manufacture a wide variety of all terrain vehicles, military and commercial vehicles, slingshots, snowmobiles, and boats. In our Division PGNA, we have a robust portfolio of parts, garments, and accessories. We deliver to nearly 100 countries across the globe. So, this facility delivers to our eastern region in the United States. We really understand the importance of keeping riders in the field of riding. So we store over 25,000 SKUs on hand here and place a lot of emphasis on order response time, and order accuracy. We were looking to increase our SKU capacity, to get our parts closer to our customer base and improve the working environment for our employees. Previously, we had a zone route pick module solution. It came with a lot of complexities. Really long learning curve. We wanted to get more volume output per hour. We wanted to leverage the technology to reduce the opportunity to make a picking error. We wanted to reduce the operator fatigue while doing their job. When we engaged Bastian early on, we did a customer visit and they were an open book. We were able to talk to operators, maintenance, leadership, all on the shop floor, and nothing was off the table. That gave us the confidence to select Bastian as as our integrator and move forward with the solution. Through partnership with Polaris and looking at, the overall data, their order profiles, inventory profiles. We jointly determined that AutoStore was a optimized fulfillment engine for their processing. And so our consultative process led us down a path to look at the sizing of that solution in terms of what's required to ensure that they're able to meet their expectations for their customers. Then we looked at the integration with pack size, which was a technology that Polaris was already using in their, applications today in a manual environment, and looked at how we could best combine the best of both worlds from both the pack size perspective and AutoStore to build one seamless integration. Working with their engineers, their software teams and their installation crews for close to two years. They were consistent. They're awesome problem solvers. They were prepared, and they really understood our customer and our product that we were putting out. At the center of the solution for Polaris is the AutoStore goods-to-person system. This system here is 44,000 Bins with nine Picking Ports and and five replenishment Ports, and then 74 Robots on top of the Grid. And we then have about, 3000ft of Bastian conveyor, and sortation in the system. And then the Pack Size X4, right size packaging machine is delivering the ordered cartons to the AutoStore pick stations. Beyond that, we also integrated into existing infrastructure that, existed here at the Bowyer site prior to the AutoStore coming on board. So we also have integration to an existing pick module and pack out areas that were already on site. The AutoStore system was designed to present 1800 Bins per hour on a peak day, at about 75% of Polaris' overall order volume is coming from the AutoStore. So traditionally, in the past environment, all that volume was being picked manually in a multi-level pick module. And now that pick module's reserved for only the biggest, bulkiest items that are very high movers. So, by taking all the merchandise that was able to fit within the AutoStore, we've been able to move 75% of their daily volume into AutoStore, which they've been able to achieve about 150% improvement on their pick rates. So, by moving that volume to the AutoStore, we've really been able to optimize the labor associated with fulfilling that outbound container. Polaris is great because it's one of the few locations that we have in the Ohio area that has an integrated pack size machine with a Bastian AutoStore. Everybody wants to come see it. They want to see the operation. They want to see how it's integrated together, and it's just a great solution. Polaris is uniquely positioned here to again, capitalize on the benefits of both pack size, right size, packaging technology and the AutoStore goods-to-person solution. By using the pack size technology, we're able to optimize the cube of a container and ultimately provide the best overall density per truck on the outbound side, which means fewer overall shipments, less corrugated spend on material, and less overall shipping costs for Polaris as a user. And then integrating that right sized packaging to AutoStore allowed Polaris to then take advantage of the significant advantages of AutoStore, including reduced storage footprint and increased storage density associated with the inventory in the system. And again, 150% improvement on picking productivity, allowing for Polaris to really optimize the labor in the facility. I would describe the AutoStore as a state of the art solution. This system has completely transformed how our facility operates today. Previously, our operators would walk up to ten miles per day. So this really cut down on the operator fatigue that we were experiencing. The learning curve is incredibly improved. Team members can pick up the new system within a day, within a couple hours. From a quality perspective, all the new technology with goods-to-person, has really improved our quality metrics year over year and how we've serviced our customer. We needed a couple of things for our e-commerce customers. Density, speed, and reliability, and the AutoStore solution has delivered on all those fronts. So, we have the capacity to triple our SKU base with the AutoStore. We've reduced our pick to pack cycle time by 50%, and we are able to operate at an extremely high run rate. We designed this system with long term capacity, so the nine Pick Ports really keep us flexible for high peak demand. There's been multiple occasions this past year, where we've had high peak volume. We've set daily records with outbound volume. One of the great benefits of AutoStore as a technology is the flexibility and scalability that it has into the future. And so as we went through the design process with the Polaris team, we jointly discussed how this system could evolve into their future growth. And so we've looked at spaces adjacent to the AutoStore and essentially penciled those in as future, expansion spaces that they could use for increased inventory growth in the facility and ultimately increased their growth over time. It's exceeded my expectations, and it's been a home run solution for our facility.