Speed and efficiency are important in every operation. But for Fun.com, where 90-percent of their business is tied to the sale and delivery of Halloween costumes, it is even more paramount. A Halloween costume that is delivered in November does nobody any good, after all. The Mankato, MN-based e-commerce company had experienced massive year-over-year growth during its life but its picking operations were not evolving to keep up. Couple the growing demand for costumes with the growing demand for labor in the Mankato area and things had hit a boiling point for Fun. "Their problem was that there is no labor to be had in the area," says Frank Sterner, VP of SJF Material Handling. "They were hiring over 1,000 people in order to process their Halloween Costumes for about an 8-week period before Halloween." That labor force consisted mostly of college students. However, as more and more companies opened operations in Mankato, that formerly cheap source of labor began to dry up. SJF was brought in to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing warehouse operations, including the product profiling, racking layout, conveyor system and information technology. Together with Fun’s management team, a plan was developed to help streamline the operation and improve operational efficiencies. Evaluation of collected sales order data enabled the implementation team to identify seasonal and peak demands for high and slow moving SKUs and corresponding labor requirements. Utilizing this information, a plan was put into action that included: replacing the manual order process with order execution software to include RF technology, re-slotting of the product to minimize the walking distance during picking, automated conveyor systems to transport orders to the designated pack stations, and a final sortation system to sort parcels to designated carriers. This implementation resulted in increased labor efficiencies and a first-year labor […]