Bar coding company ExPD Limited has been instrumental in helping Littlewoods, one of the UK's leading catalogue shopping operations, to speed up handling of its packages doubling output by introducing industrial scanners, the HoloTrak IS8300.

The installation of the industrial scanners was undertaken by EXPD Online Systems based in Bedfordshire, in conjunction with Littlewoods applications engineers. This division of ExPD specialise in conveying and sortation systems designed to meet the growing demand for higher throughput with greater accuracy and in installing and commissioning a complete range of bar code products.

The introduction of the IS8300 means that Littlewoods distribution facility, based in Oldham near Manchester, is now capable of handling over 50 million packages per year. Originally equipped with hand held scanners the centre has increased productivity by almost double and is now able to handle 1,500 packages per hour in comparison with the 800 per hour that the hand-helds could manage. Given the high throughput of packages being processed through the distribution centre, the number of hand-held scanners and scanner cables being damaged was quite significant, but having the HoloTrak's mounted above the conveyors, the problems have been rectified.

By converting from a hand scanning manual process to a more automated conveyor scanning system, Littlewoods is also realising the training of their work force has been simplified.

Dave Biggin, Project Manager, Littlewoods, commented, "We are delighted with the results of the Metrologic scanning equipment. We have moved our operations on to a different level of speed, accuracy, and reliability. This additional order will enable us to remove the last of our hand held scanners and we will then standardise our operations using Holotrak scanners."

Chris Denton, Managing Director of EXPD Online Systems, says "By reacting quickly to the request by Littlewoods for an evaluation of the HoloTrak IS8300, we were able to work with our supplier, Metrologic, to fulfil their requirements for a comprehensive scanning solution"