A supermarket in Colombia saw another store using a conveyor system to handle grocery order picking and they wanted to emulate a similar micro-fulfillment solution in their own store. Pacline worked together with an integrator to create a custom overhead conveyor system that would meet their needs. Our engineers chose the PAC-LINE™ round track conveyor for this application because of its flexibility, compact size, and quiet motor.

The Grocery Store Bag Handling Solution

Pacline worked closely with a systems integrator to design this in-store grocery micro-fulfillment solution. The system works when a customer places their order online and then it is assigned to one of the supermarket’s employees to pick in-store. After the employee has been assigned a customer’s grocery list, they will go to one of the locations on the conveyor where it dips down to remove an empty shopping bag and proceed to fill it with the customer’s order. Once the employee is finished gathering all the items in the online order, they hang the grocery bag back onto the overhead conveyor system at a specific location and press a start button. The overhead conveyor then transports the bag to a designated area that utilizes the store’s backroom storage space, so that another employee can prepare the order for the customer to pick–up.  

Supermarket Bag Conveyor Features

• The conveyor system has a few areas throughout the store in which it dips down so that employees can add/remove the bags.  
• There are stations where they can stop or start the overhead conveyor as needed.  
• Adjustable conveyor speed that ranges from 8-38 feet per minute 
• This system can hold up to 180 bags at one time  
• Ceiling supported system without floor supports maximized the floor space 

The Challenges

One of the key challenges of this solution was to make sure that the conveyor system adhered to safety and cleanliness standards. In order to achieve this, netting was added below the track to prevent any damage that could be caused if anything fell from the bags as they traveled along the conveyor path.  

Netting underneath conveyor to catch falling items

The Result

Pacline was able to work closely with an integrator to create an efficient custom in-store micro–fulfillment solution for a large grocer that allowed them to optimize their buy online and pick up in-store (BOPIS) operations. Learn more about micro-fulfillment solutions here: https://www.pacline.com/solutions/microfulfillment/