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March 28, 2024

Supplier Case Study: Cutter & Buck Implements New Automation System

The Top 40 apparel firm said AutoStore has helped significantly speed up fulfillment. The move is part of a growing trend of suppliers leveraging intelligent automation solutions in distribution centers.

By  Christopher Ruvo

From three-to-five days, to just 25 hours.

That’s the rapid acceleration in the time it takes Top 40 supplier Cutter & Buck (asi/47965) to get a custom-embroidered logo order out the door since it implemented a new automated system to fuel efficiency at its distribution center in Renton, WA, according to company executives.

Made by Kardex, AutoStore, as the solution is called, is described as a goods-to-person storage and retrieval system for products.

automated warehouse

At its Renton, WA, facility, Cutter & Buck has implemented AutoStore, an automated fulfillment solution in which product-packed bins are stacked vertically in a grid and retrieved by intelligent, battery-powered vehicles that travel on top of the grid system.

C&B’s use of the system is another example of an industry supplier introducing a fulfillment-streamlining solution that involves humans working in tandem with intelligent, automated systems. Last year, for instance, ASI Media reported about how select suppliers were starting to use autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to gain efficiencies.

“Efficiency is the future,” said Andrew Pudduck, head of brand marketing at Cutter & Buck. “We looked into and implemented automation to stay ahead of our customers’ growing desire for rapid delivery of customized product, whether it’s a one-off D2C order coming through an online retail partner like Fanatics or a 1,000-piece order from the ASI world.”

Andrew Pudduck“Within 30 seconds of the order information coming in, the machine is picking the product.” Andrew Pudduck, Cutter & Buck

How It Works

Under the old way, an order would come in to Cutter & Buck and a receiving system would transmit the particulars to a distribution center employee on the floor. The employee would then pick necessary products from boxes on pallet racks and put items on a conveyor, sending them over to the decorating department. “It works, but it’s time-consuming,” said Pudduck.

AutoStore streamlines things, he said. To get a sense of the system, picture a roughly 50-yard-by-50-yard condensed grid of vertically stacked bins. Humans pre-fill the bins with particular products, such as polo shirts, outerwear and quarter-zips in Cutter & Buck’s case. The system alerts employees when a bin is getting low so the diminishing SKU can be restocked.

Cutter & Buck made this video of AutoStore at work.

When an order arrives, AutoStore snaps into action, Pudduck said. Intelligent, battery-powered machines travel on top of the grid system, picking bins with the ordered items and delivering them to an employee, who sends the selected products to the embroidery department for decorating.

“It happens almost instantaneously,” said Pudduck. “Within 30 seconds of the order information coming in, the machine is picking the product.”

Kardex asserts that AutoStore can adapt to changing order fulfillment requirements through a flexible configuration of the robots, ports and quantity of bin locations.

Impacts

Pudduck told ASI Media that AutoStore went live just in time for the holiday sales rush during the fourth quarter of 2023. The speed with which orders could be moved helped propel business in both Cutter & Buck’s direct-to-consumer channel and in the promo world, according to Pudduck.

“Because our turn was so quick, we found that both online and brick-and-mortar retailers, for example, were able to sell more of our product sooner, which led to quicker re-orders,” Pudduck shared. “Efficiency drives revenue.”

Cutter & Buck’s North American promo sales rose 31.5% year over year in 2022. Pudduck said Cutter & Buck was up double-digits in percentage terms across all business channels last year.

When discussions of robotics and automation in the workplace arise, there’s always a corresponding question that comes with them: Will this cost human jobs? Pudduck said not in Cutter & Buck’s case. AutoStore works in tandem with humans, he said. And the sales growth it’s helping propel is catalyzing the need for more hiring.

“The investment in automation,” Pudduck shared, “has increased our investment in human capital.”

With 2022 North American promotional product revenue of $71 million, Cutter & Buck ranked 24th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest suppliers in the industry.