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There’s nothing like a pandemic, a labor shortage, and the holiday season to expose inefficiencies in a fulfillment center and open executives’ eyes to the need for a new automated infrastructure. That’s exactly what happened at Cutter & Buck, a Seattle-based omnichannel retailer hit with this troubling trifecta in 2020.
Known for its lifestyle apparel and upscale activewear, the brand has evolved over the years to provide custom embroidery, licensed products, and specialty retail. With that product expansion came the need to manage different workflows for direct-to-consumer sales, retail outlets, and customized clothing.
However, the growing e-commerce channel pushed the limits of Cutter & Buck’s fulfillment capabilities, especially as online shoppers came to expecte same-day shipments. This on-demand consumer mentality puts pressure on staff and the systems in place for order picking.
“We were running out of daylight trying to condense more and more orders into a shorter and shorter turn time,” said Cutter & Buck CEO Joel Freet.
This was particularly trying during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the company struggled with surging online sales and a simultaneous labor shortage. During this time, even the leadership team stepped in to fill orders in its facility in Renton, Wash.
“We all pitched in, getting trained on our picking processes and committing to multiple shifts per week during the holidays,” Freet recalled. “By holiday 2021, our e-commerce was growing so fast, we had no choice but to pitch in again.”
The distribution center layout of three floors and 21 aisles required a lot of running around to build a cart, put orders into totes, and send them onto the conveyor to operations.
“It seemed automated at the time, but you were walking eight to 10 miles a day when doing that picking operation,” Freet explained.
This was an eye-opening turning point for the leadership team, which decided to explore new ways to make the existing processes more efficient. It investigated changing the layout of the picking module, reducing SKUs, or adding more automation.
“In the end, we uncovered that to keep up with our growth, we would need a breakthrough in productivity to support our peak season sales in the future,” said Freet. “And that’s what brought us to looking at next-generation picking automation systems.”
After many technology demonstrations, Cutter & Buck decided to upgrade its facility with an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) from AutoStore coupled with the FulfillX warehouse execution system (WES) from Kardex.
Team analyzes and accelerates picking processes
The Kardex team helped Cutter & Buck implement the ASRS and WES, starting with an overall assessment of the facility.
“They looked at our product sales, our order flow, [and] the number of lines we pick per hour,” Freet recalled. “They were able to analyze all that and tell us how we could configure our AutoStore setup to give us that boost in our business that we were looking for.”
According to Scott Sumpter, executive director of distribution at Cutter & Buck, the 10,000-sq.-ft. ASRS was deployed quickly, and it immediately changed the workflow. For example, during peak season, 12 associates working with AutoStore managed volumes that previously required 30 workers.
AutoStore’s goods-to-person (G2P) approach keeps pickers stationary at ports, while robots retrieve totes from the high-density storage grid and deliver them to workstations. This eliminates travel time within the warehouse, enabling faster and more accurate picks.
“The solution has absolutely helped us with our picking efficiency,” said Sumpter. “We are not only shipping same day for blank orders consistently with no real challenge; now we’ve [also] been able to reduce our time for embroidery processes, allowing faster turns there. It is because the AutoStore system is getting orders out to shipping or to embroidery very quickly.”
In addition, the intuitive software interface and visual guidance make training easy.
“We can teach people to be productive pickers in about 10 minutes, and a good part of that is safety protocols we go through,” Sumpter said.
Kardex FulfillX also provides a way to expedite orders when needed, a capability Cutter & Buck never had before.
“So, now, within 10 minutes, we can pick any order that we want to come out first,” said Sumpter.
Fulfillment at Cutter & Buck engages workforce
The AutoStore system was designed to handle five years of growth at Cutter & Buck. Not only does it ease and accelerate the picking process, but it also supports the consumer’s need for a quick turnaround, said the companies.
For example, the ASRS supports direct-to-consumer orders by picking items directly into shipping cartons. When an order comes into the website, it goes into a pick ticket, and it is picked, packed, and on its way in less than 10 minutes.
Goods for embroidery are picked into totes and staged near production areas for immediate use. But the system’s dense storage capacity has allowed Cutter & Buck to repurpose a former three-day work-in-progress staging area for miscellaneous storage.
According to Freet, the primary goal for adopting an ASRS was to eliminate bottlenecks and enable more efficient labor allocation – not to reduce headcount. The implementation delivered on that and resulted in improved service levels and faster order fulfillment across all channels.
“I think our ability to commit to the fastest service levels that we possibly can has been really positive for the company,” Sumpter said. “Our AutoStore deployment has been critical to removing the bottleneck in picking that was previously challenging our ability to hit those high service levels year-round.”
It is also a positive shift for personnel, as the workforce is much more engaged. “It’s stuff that is getting people ready for the next generation and keeping them excited about working here,” Freet said.