Magid’s goods-to-person system optimizes its e-fulfillment

As a U.S.-based manufacturer and worldwide distributor of personal protective equipment (PPE), Magid’s team of safety experts consults with industries across North America to answer questions, conduct onsite assessments and tackle industrial safety challenges—from customizing PPE to creating inventory management and distribution programs.

For more than 70 years, Magid has offered its own line of quality PPE, introducing 400 new products last year alone, as well as more than 700 leading brands of personal safety equipment for commercial and industrial applications. Its tagline, “Safety at Work,” is more than just a slogan, as the company protects its own industrial workers each day and promises its customers “The products you need, the flexibility you want and the experts you trust.”

After outgrowing its existing business headquarters/offices and distribution center, Magid sought to consolidate its operations into one building (at a new location) and increase order-processing capacity for current and future growth. In addition, the company’s intra-logistics goal was to improve its customer experience, using a new process and automation, while also reducing the cost and time to fill orders.

A key feature of the new distribution center is a goods-to-person (GTP) order fulfillment system powered by an inventory storage buffer. The order fulfillment system is ideal since it fits into a compact footprint, allowing more space for other warehouse functions and growth. The space-efficient, double-deep, two-aisle inventory storage buffer accommodates approximately 18,500 totes, as each level is serviced by its own shuttle.

Inbound inventory is transported from the receiving area to the decanting workstations. Here, each stock keeping unit (SKU) is “checked-in” and unloaded from the received carton and placed into a storage tote. There are two decanting workstations. Through the use of removable dividers, each tote can store one, two, four or eight SKUs. Once the decanting process is complete for each SKU, the inventory tote is conveyed to the inventory storage subsystem.

The inventory storage subsystem is the engine that supplies the inventory totes to the GTP workstations. When inventory is retrieved from the system, it’s delivered to the workstations (as required for order assembly), ensuring very high productivity and order accuracy.

The GTP workstation configuration—in which a single inventory tote is presented to an operator (together with the order cartons)—means workers no longer have to waste time locating and identifying stock. Additionally, it enables multiple orders, requiring the same SKU, to be fulfilled concurrently.

In all, Magid currently has three GTP workstations. A single line order workstation accommodates one donor inventory tote, along with a customer “pick-to” order container. In addition, two multi-line order workstations accommodate one donor inventory tote, as well as up to 20 customer order containers.

Staff members work in parallel at the workstations, unaffected by each other’s pace. And, the workstations can be opened and closed, as required on a particular shift. Of equal importance, the system provides full redundancy since orders can be processed at any location, as every workstation operates independently.

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