New totes ISOTONER DC Handles Pre-Holiday Volume & Delivers 99.9% Order Fulfillment Accuracy

The Challenge
Following the acquisition of ISOTONER® by totes®, this leader in weather gear, including umbrellas, gloves, robber shoe covers, rain hats and rain coats, and water-resistant tote bags, needed to design and build a consolidated national distribution center and do it on a fast track—only 12 months from the first planning meeting to systems commissioning.

A unique requirement was that the new operation would need to handle 80% of annual volume in the 100-day pre-holiday period.

The Solution
FORTE designed and built a new, automated 450,000 sq. ft. distribution center in Cincinnati, Ohio. A WMS needs analysis was performed, including vendor evaluation, selection and implementation.

A unique, automated picking and shipping material handling system was integrated with the WMS utilizing FORTE’s Automation Director™ WCS.

The Result
The new distribution operation easily “flexes up” to handle pre-holiday volume and delivers 99.9% order fulfillment accuracy.

“The FORTE people are not only experts in designing and installing material handling automation, they’re experts in the application and integration of warehouse management
system software as well. FORTE’s program and their post-installation start-up support worked very effectively for us.” totes»ISOTONER