Horizontal Carousels

Horizontal carousels have been used in distribution for a long time. Their operation is intuitive since it is open and easy to visualize. Much like the carousel at the dry cleaners, this carousel brings wire carriers that are suspended from the top around an oval track to picking station. The carriers are arranged with adjustable shelves so product of all shapes and sizes can be accommodated.  The longer the carousel, the slower it is to rotate a carrier to the picker, but carousels are typically arranged in “pods” of 2 or 3 so that all the units in the pod can work on the same order. While the picker is picking and putting parts in an order tote, the other units in the pod can be rotating to the next pick. Carousels work best in distribution applications when you can batch orders together so they can be picked concurrently.