Garment-on-hanger system and pocket sorter
Hanging garments stored, moved and sorted on overhead rails; small items ride in hanging pockets that buffer, sequence and release them by order. Common in apparel and e-commerce warehouses.
Hanging garments stored, moved and sorted on overhead rails; small items ride in hanging pockets that buffer, sequence and release them by order. Common in apparel and e-commerce warehouses.
A garment-on-hanger (GOH) system keeps clothes on hangers and stores, moves and sorts them on overhead rails, so suits, coats and dresses never need folding and go straight onto store rails. A pocket sorter uses pouches hanging from the rail: each usually holds one item, which are buffered and sequenced in the air and released in order once an order is complete. It suits apparel and fashion e-commerce with many SKUs, small orders and many returns. Both use the space overhead and leave more of the floor for packing and other work.
Typical uses
- Hanging-garment shipments from apparel retail DCs
- Order sorting and sequencing in apparel and fashion e-commerce
- Buffering and re-allocating returns
- Hanging shipments from apparel exporters to European retailers
How to choose
- Share of hanging versus flat-packed goods
- Daily items, SKU count and order profile (how many single-item orders)
- Returns rate
- Clear height and the load the roof structure can carry
When it is not the right choice
- Mostly large or heavy items: pockets and hanging rails have limited capacity
- Almost no hanging goods, all flat-packed: no GOH; flat small items that need buffering, sequencing and consolidation still suit a pocket sorter, or compare a bomb-bay sorter or put wall
- Roof cannot carry the load: a floor-standing steel structure is needed; check first
Key figures
| Hanging sorting | Published equipment ratings: about 5,000–7,500 items/h per sorting module |
|---|---|
| Pocket loading | Published equipment ratings: loading stations about 100–120 pockets/min; with manual loading the rate depends on the operators; usually one item per pocket |
| Hangers | Adapted to the customer's hanger type |
| Identification | Barcode or RFID |
| Layout | Overhead rails; support chosen by building capacity, hung from roof steel or on a floor-standing structure |
Figures are typical configuration ranges; exact specifications are set per project.
Options
- RFID identification
- Returns buffer
- Automatic pocket unloading stations
- Systems mixing hanging and flat goods
- WMS interface for order sequencing
Scope of supply
- Machine, drives and control cabinet, assembled and dry-run tested before shipping
- The equipment's own control and fleet software; interfaces to your existing WMS / ERP as the project requires
- Drawings: general arrangement, foundation and anchor plan, electrical schematics
- Conformity documents for the equipment and the whole line, the split of responsibilities and the acceptance criteria are set out in the contract according to the project scope
- Spare-parts list and wear-part recommendation; a first batch can ship with the equipment
- Factory acceptance (FAT): attend in person or follow by live video
- Installation, commissioning and operator training can be included in the offer
What we need for an offer
- Share of hanging and flat goods, daily items
- SKU count, order-line profile and returns rate
- Hanger type
- Floor plan, clear height and roof structure data
- Upstream system