July 8, 2025

Case Study: Reverse Stop Route Truck Fulfillment

Introduction:

Fulfillment operations in support of route trucks occur in a number of industries including wine and liquor and related beverages, chain stores and drugstores and related retailers, food service and institutional suppliers to restaurants and business, and many others.

Traditional fulfillment operations are space and labor intensive or require high levels of capital investment. This case study covers a solution provided by Invar Systems that is labor, space, and capital efficient. The key to this solution is an efficient process that was designed and developed by Invar Systems and provides a single integrated solution to manage the overall fulfillment process.

For this system, Invar Systems provided the Invar Warehouse System (IWS) software solution with extensive algorithms to manage the process from inbound through shipping.

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Challenge:

Provide a reverse stop, route truck loading fulfillment solution that:

  • Fits in limited space in high value area.
  • Accommodates short fulfillment times to allow as late order cutoff time as possible
  • Supports predictable truck release times based on route requirements.
  • Provides fluid loading of route trucks in reverse stop sequence.
  • Provides pallet build-ing in reverse stop sequence to allow cross dock at remote facilities.
  • Accommodates variety of products and on-going SKU changes and growth.
  • Is extremely accurate, insuring that fast turn orders are always correct.
  • Provides high levels of visibility to management about order status, insuring targets are met.
  • Utilizes capital expenditure effectively.

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Initial Data Analysis and System Design
System Simulation

  • Inbound Receiving Functions (Inbound Process, Put away)
  • Replenishment Management for Overall Warehouse and Pick faces
  • Single Software Solution for the management of:
    • Orders (Determining which routes and which stops to release, based on needs and downstream processes)
    • Picking (Determining which stop or portion of stop to pick based on orders and sorting, adjusting pick selection and priorities based on condition of sorting and accumulation)
    • Sorting (Determining where to sort what based on orders and stop status)
  • Management/Control of Manual Functions (Put away, replenishment, picking, pallet build, truck loading)
  • Management / Control of Automation: Conveyor System and Sortation

Solution

Integrated solution with manual and automated process, all controlled and managed by Invar Warehouse System (IWS).

System includes:

  • Warehouse In a Warehouse Providing Local Inventory to insure timely replenishment.
  • Multi-level pick module with carton flow on lower level and pallet flow on upper levels.
  • RF Managed pick to belt process
  • Carton sortation system for delivery to route trucks and pallet build stations
  • Limited Accumulation feeding sortation system
  • Invar Warehouse System (IWS) Software Solution

Invar Provided Services

Provided Invar Warehouse System (IWS) warehouse management/warehouse control system to manage and control fulfillment system including:

  • Initial Data Analysis and System Design
  • System Simulation
  • Inbound Receiving Functions (Inbound Process, Put away)
  • Replenishment Management for Overall Warehouse and Pick faces
  • Management/Control of Manual Functions (Put away, replenishment, picking, pallet build, truck loading)
  • Management /Control of Automation: Conveyor System, Sortation
  • Support of product substitution rule

Single Software Solution for the management of:

  • Orders (Determining which routes and which stops to release, based on needs and downstream processes)
  • Picking (Determining which stop or portion of stop to pick based on orders and sorting, adjusting pick selec-tion and priorities based on condition of sorting and accumulation)
  • Sorting (Determining where to sort what based on orders and stop status)

Results

With the implementation of the new system, throughput has significantly increased without adding labor hours.

With the increased speed of order fulfillment, the customer has now been able to extend their sales window, providing their sales force the opportunity to sell and ship more product to customers, creating a better service model and gain a greater return on their original capital investment.

Order accuracy has increased to 99.8% and the customer is now able to consistently get drivers on the road on time, meeting delivery objectives and providing exceptional customer service.

Contact Invar Systems today to discuss your warehouse automation project.