Orchestra Prémaman is a chain store selling maternity and kids clothing as well as childcare accessories.

Founded in 1995, the company is based in the south of France. 2,500 people are currently employed. Orchestra counts around 300 stores mainly located between France, Belgium and Switzerland. In 2020, Orchestra Prémaman made the decision to centralize of their logistics activities in Arras in a 120,000 m² warehouse with the ambition to strengthen the digital activity by 2024.

To reach its production expectations, Orchestra Prémaman wanted to move its warehouse from Saint Aunès, in the south of France, to Arras by carrying out a complete retrofit of its sorting and conveying system. The sorter and conveyors have been fully optimized and automated to process order preparation, store replenishment and returns with a great precision and a fast production rate.

TRANSITIC has installed a one-kilometer-long network of conveyors and an automatic tray sorter adapted to the fashion industry. 

Automatic tray sorter

The automatic sorter was already present in the former Orchestra warehouse. It was disassembled and then completely optimized and modernized by our teams, in close partnership with Equinox MHE. By re-using an already existing machine, Orchestra limits its costs and reduces its environmental impact.

To meet our customer new goals, several technical features have been revised : 

• The sorter is now equipped with double tilting trays and optical scanners that automatically identify items and redirect them to their pre-assigned stations. When they reach their destination, trays open and drop the items directly into their container: bin, bag or cardboard …

• The size of sorted items has been increased and the machine can now handle cartons, in addition to clothes and fashion accessories.

• Flipper plates have been added to the exit stations under the tilting trays and allow products to be directed towards 2 separate containers. This optimizes the total number of containers in the system.

• The sorter has been reinstalled with 8 injection stations allowing operators to enter items according to their connected display. All stations are equipped with Pick-to-Light and Put-to-Light systems which guide operators in their actions and minimize the risk of errors.

At maximum speed, the sorter can process up to 14,400 items per hour.

Results : The automatic tray sorter improves items flows and human errors are reduced to their minimum rate. The sorter processes more than 150,000 items per day to restock stores and send e-commerce orders. The wide oval shape optimizes all available space.

Conveyors

In parallel with the automatic sorter, a large network of overhead and flat conveyors  has been installed,  completed by two telescopic conveyors which ensure the unloading of the trucks and the automatic feeding of the conveyors.

These conveyors generate flows that dispatch packages to different locations in the warehouse:

• Distribution of packages in the 8 stations to store the items in racks
• Feeding of the sorting comb in reception
• Automatic feeding of the sorter
• Recirculation of empty bins and feeding of the stations
• Feeding of the sorting comb in the E-Commerce area

Results: The warehouse space is used to its maximum potential. The fully automated system, connected to the control software, ensures continuity, regularity and monitoring of performances.