Making the Most of Available Labor
“Month after month, for years on end, warehouses have been sucking up workers like an industrial-size vacuum.” So says Business Insider. A major pharmaceutical wholesaler saw the writing on the wall. For over a decade, the wholesaler has been aggressively adopting robotics and automation to improve warehouse operations and accommodate constricting labor markets.
Competing for labor is especially difficult when warehouse workers are required to work at night. Rapid turnover further frustrates the problem. For example, Amazon’s annual turnover rate is 150%. An internal memo warned that Amazon warehouses could run out of people to hire by 2024. Keeping warehouse workers happy has become a top business priority for pharmaceutical wholesale distributors.
All-in-One Shuttles
- Individually-powered shuttles store and retrieve totes with products.
- Shuttles and conveyors provide the right items at the right time to the right picking stations.
- Pickers can consistently work at a fast pace, because they don’t have to walk anywhere — goods come to them.
- Pulling orders instead of pushing them minimizes staging and sorting requirements.
Getting the right mix of technology
The pharma wholesaler is making the most of the labor available to them by combining established and modern logistics technology. Modern automation technologies are faster, more flexible and require fewer touches. The wholesaler relies on its decades-long partnership with KNAPP to get the right mix of technology for their unique needs.
That mix includes A-Frame autopickers. This central belt system is the fastest way to pick orders. It delivers the highest throughput — with the ability to pick up to 250,000 items per hour. The reliable, proven technology has been in action for over 35 years. It can easily handle the wholesaler’s daily high peaks and broad item range.
They’ve paired the autopicker powerhouse with an all-in-one shuttle system that stores, picks, buffers, replenishes, supplies and sequences items. With their precise sequencing, these shuttle systems have significantly improved productivity in the wholesaler’s distribution centers.
The system has three levels of buffering:
- A buffer tower that provides fast access to high-volume items
- A box storage tower in a remote location for low-volume items
- A strategically-located tote buffer for mid-volume items
Intelligent distribution speeds order fulfillment.
The system fills orders faster because intelligent software manages the order stream. The software looks ahead and pre-sequences items and totes. High-speed buffering and millisecond sequencing:
- Optimize order flow in a way that’s never before been possible
- Flexibly accommodate high-priority orders or changes in orders
- Eliminate all those endless buffering and sequencing conveyors
It’s all enabled by an intelligent warehouse control system that is closely coupled with inventory logic. This intelligence, integration and interoperability reduces conveyors, totes, system complexity and order processing time.
The time-to-tote is roughly half that of traditional approaches because instead of many layers of communication interfaces, there’s only one. Highly efficient goods-to-person workstations also increase picking performance and reduce labor-related costs through reduced operator interactions and optimized headcount.
Doing more in less space.
Because of the way they are engineered, these next-generation shuttle systems squeeze an enormous volume in the smallest possible footprint. This has allowed the wholesaler to:
- Reduce warehouse footprints by up to 30% through increased storage density
- Decrease the size of conveyor networks by up to 70% versus conveyor-intensive systems
- Scale as their needs change with no limit on the total number of aisles (system width)
"While companies focus on supply chain basics like increasing efficiency and managing costs, they're missing value creation opportunities in digitization, sustainability and transformation."
Advancing quality and compliance.
The pharma wholesaler has also fully automated compliance with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) using in-process data capture. The advanced vision system is the industry’s first high-speed, fully-automated, industry-proven solution. It delivers 99.8% read rates during the picking process. Support from their technology partner throughout the implementation process streamlined validation. The same system also provides error-free fulfillment with 100% in-process quality checks.
Creating long-term value.
This pharmaceutical wholesaler has continued to thrive amidst a pandemic, geopolitical conflict, increased costs, uncertain product availability and tight labor markets because they have:
- Adapted to the changing landscape
- Embraced new technologies
- Reinvented fulfillment processes
Their “digital first” mindset is helping them transform their relationship with warehouse workers, customers and consumers. It’s also given them a pharmaceutical value chain that’s patient-centric, error-free, risk-ready, real-time and auto-compliant.
