Tech Data gears up for growth with automation
Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 10/2/2001
Tech Data, a leading global provider of information technology products, logistics management, and other services, needed to expand its Canadian order fulfillment capability. To do so it built a fully automated distribution center in Mississauga, Ontario.
A single-source solutions provider was chosen for this project. "We looked at this as a partnership because we needed someone who could help with the design as well as with the installation," says Cos Damianakis, director, logistics and integration services, Tech Data.
Brought on line in April 2001, the new 243,000 sq ft DC has been designed to service orders from 9,000 Canadian resellers with improved accuracy, lower cost margins, and increased overall customer satisfaction.
The solutions provider, with its affiliated conveyor systems supplier acting as the lead integrator, managed the installation of narrow-aisle racking, pick modules, an order picking mezzanine, a sorter platform, flow racks, work benches, a pallet weigh scale, and a stretch wrapper as well as conveyor systems.
Orders of individual products are picked into totes, and the totes travel on several types of conveyors. As a tote is routed through any of six zones on the mezzanine, which facilitates the staging of orders in progress, the tote moves on live roller, accumulation, right angle transfer, and gravity conveyors, for example.
In the full case pick area there is live roller conveyor that permits zero pressure accumulation of cased products without line pressure buildup. Photoeye sensors instead of old-fashioned, contact type sensors provide more flexibility and reliability for non-contact accumulation. Ultra-quiet bearings on this conveyor system meet Tech Data's noise level requirements. Because the facility houses not only distribution, but also offices and a configuration center, high noise levels must be avoided.
A high-speed merge prior to sortation is one of the system's unique features. It funnels six lines into a 3:1 wide-belt merge that then feeds the sorter. This merge can index on a rotating basis to balance the flow from the different lines. Through simulation, the solutions provider provided proof that this proposed system would be more efficient and have increased throughput, while running the entire system at a more comfortable speed, compared to the original sawtooth merge concept.
A two-speed sliding shoe sorter also is an integral part of Tech Data's DC. It sorts packages of various sizes, from computer chips to monitors/ And it does so gently, consistently, and effectively. It can sort up to 100 cases per minute to thirteen diverts.
Final steps in the turnkey project involved phasing out two other facilities and training employees with minimal downtime. The new DC has been shipping at least 2,500 orders per day, and that number is growing.
In its lead integrator role, the conveyor systems supplier, says Damianakis, "helped a great deal in making this changeover from manual to automated, from old facilities to new, so effortless. Our new system has improved our shipping accuracy and performance. Looking ahead to 2005, our material flow is expected to be three times greater than current levels. We now have facilities to accommodate that expansion."
FKI Logistex Automation Division
877-935-4564
www.fkilogistex.com
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