Warehouse upgrade doubles throughput without more labor
Picked cases are sorted to five conveyor lines, each dedicated to a single distributor's order.;After a pallet's bar code is scanned and the WMS notified of receipt, the load is delivered to the AS/RS for putaway.; Efficient handling streamlines order fulfillment. Received product is scanned on receipt and delivered by lift truck to the AS/RS for putaway. Full pallet loads needed for orders are retrieved from the AS/RS and delivered to a shipping dock by lift truck. Pallets needed for mixed-
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 1/1/1998
When the warehouse upgrade team at Matrix Essentials took a look at its 200,000 sq ft facility almost two years ago, they could see that there was room for improvement.Quite simply, they needed to find a better way to keep pace with rising demand for its personal care products as new product lines expanded its base of 1,300 stock keeping units (SKUs).
"Our industry is traditionally slow to automate its operations," says Bart Jones, director of engineering. "We felt strongly, however, that integrating our manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution processes with integrated materials handling and information systems would give us a competitive advantage in our marketplace," he adds.
And that's exactly what the company has today. It added conveyor sortation, a warehouse management system (WMS), bar codes, and radio frequency data communications (RFDC) to the warehouse. Those systems work with the three-aisle automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) and transportation conveyors already in place.
Productivity improvements with the new integrated system are impressive, says Jones. Warehouse labor requirements have remained steady as product shipments have doubled. In addition, order turnaround time has dropped from 24 hours to 12 hours or less.
For the first time, Matrix Essentials has the ability to track product through all stages of the supply chain, minimizing the opportunity for gray market distribution to unauthorized outlets.
How the DC has changed
The Solon, Ohio, distribution center (DC) is just one part of a 600,000 sq ft, multi-facility corporate campus built in 1991. It includes two manufacturing facilities that send finished product over to the DC.
Central to the DC's operations is the three-aisle, 18,000 location AS/RS. The 12-level, double-deep system occupies about 50,000 sq ft of the DC. Two PCs manage AS/RS putaway and picking activities as well as the inventory stored in it.
Until the recent upgrade, the order processing system required manual inventory counts at production and distribution. Now a WMS (Robocom Systems), bar codes, and a 900 MHz RFDC system (LXE) manage data collection and data management functions.
The software maintains a database of all warehouse inventory in real time based on input from bar codes and wireless terminals. The WMS also coordinates receiving, storage, picking, and shipment activities and resources in the facility.
Beyond the warehouse, the WMS is directly linked to the enterprise resource planning software (ERP) which provides a bridge to other key software packages. On the front end, the ERP is hooked to the software that manages shop floor activities at both manufacturing sites on the campus. The enterprise software also provides the link between the WMS and order management software that initiates picking and shipments.
Managing inventory
The tie between the WMS and manufacturing software becomes essential before finished goods ever leave the two manufacturing facilities.
All work-in-process is tracked by bar codes. This information is used by the manufacturing software to generate bar code labels for cartons of finished goods before release to the DC. Those labels are used in the warehouse to track inventory. All carton and pallet label data is passed on to the WMS which later uses it to generate labels at the time that orders are shipped to authorized distributors.
Bar code labels on pallets arriving at the DC are scanned and the data sent to the WMS by fixed-position RFDC terminals. The WMS confirms receipt and instructs a lift truck driver with hand-held RFDC terminal to deliver the load to the AS/RS.
A fixed-position scanner at the front end of the AS/RS reads the bar code on the delivered pallet load. Under the control of the PCs, an input conveyor moves the load to a pickup/deposit station at the end of the selected aisle for putaway by the storage/retrieval machine.
Pallet loads are called out of the AS/RS either to fill orders or to replenish case picking areas in the DC.
"We ship about a 50/50 mix of full-pallet and mixed case loads from here," says Dave Zavodny, manager of distribution.
All picking activities are directed by the WMS once customer orders have been downloaded from the ERP system. Full pallet picks are delivered by lift trucks directly from the AS/RS to the shipping department. Case picks are made in waves before sortation to shipping.
Waves of orders are managed by the warehouse software to maximize over-the-road truck routing and cube utilization. A wave may contain up to six truck loads and 4,000 cases.
"We load 15 to 30 trailers a day and average 85% cube utilization," says Zavodny.
In the case pick area on the floor of the warehouse and on the mezzanine, workers with hand-held RFDC terminals are directed by the WMS to specific locations. There, they pick all cases for that wave and place them on a belt conveyor for takeaway. This system allows up to six orders to be picked simultaneously.
A fixed-position scanner reads the bar coded serial number on each case as it enters the conveyor sortation system. The ensures that cases are sorted to the correct one of six lanes, each dedicated to an order in that wave.
"When we finish with one wave, we move on to the next one in just 10 or 15 minutes," says Zavodny. "That has had a positive impact on reducing the time it takes us to fill orders," he adds.
Cases in shipping are then palletized. The bar code label applied in manufacturing for identification while in the warehouse is stripped off and a new bar code label applied for shipment.
The new label put on each case, says Kent Puthoff, manager of operations systems support, is a critical component of the company's efforts to aggressively track product through all stages of the supply chain.
Each case's bar code label carries information about the case and its contents as well as the identification number of the distributor that will receive that case. When Matrix Essentials finds product at unauthorized outlets, the company can then link it to the appropriate distributor and set financial penalties for violating the company's distribution agreement.
After labeling of cartons, pallet loads are shrink wrapped and receive two address labels applied to different sides of the load. These pallets are then moved to the shipping dock where they join full pallet loads delivered earlier from the AS/RS.
"In addition to giving Matrix Essentials a competitive advantage, this system helps us fill our distributors orders in less time than ever," says Zavodny.
System Snapshot
Matrix Essentials, a division of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Solon, Ohio
Director of facilities: Bart Jones
Warehouse size:200,000 sq ft
Products stored:Hair and skin care products
Number of SKUs:1,300
Automated storage system: 18,000 locations double deep, 12 levels high in 3 aisles
Conveyor sortation system: Feeds 5 lines, each dedicated to a single distributor
Average pick wave size:4,000 cases
Total number of docks:22
Order pick mix: 50/50 split between full pallets and mixed-case loads
Daily shipments:15-30 over-the-road trailer loads
Total number of shipments:100
Radio frequency identification system:LXE 770-447-4224
Warehouse management system: Robocom Systems 516-795-5100
Sortation system: Mathews Conveyor 800-628-4397
AS/RS:Rapistan Systems 616-451-6525
Fixed scanners: Accu-Sort Systems 215-723-0981
Lift trucks: Yale 800-233-9253
Caterpillar 713-365-1000
Stretch wrap system: Liberty Industries 330-726-2808
Label printers: Zebra Technologies 847-634-6700
Label printer/applicators: Labelaire 714-441-0700
There are no other articles related to this article.Talkback
Related Content
Related Content
Sponsored Links
View All Blogs
