A DC designed to serve the educational needs of the healthcare industry

Pocket Nurse
Monaca, Pa.
Size: 100,000 square feet
Products: Simulation and educational training materials for nurses, EMTs and CPR training
Throughput: 300 to 500 orders picked per day, with seasonal peaks
SKUs: 10,731 active SKUs, with close to 5,000 picked daily
Shifts per Day/ Days per Week: 1 shift, 5 days per week

Read the Full System Report on the new Pocket Nurse distribution center.

Pocket Nurse uses mobile computing, a multi-level pick module and conveyor and sortation to optimize its pick and pack operations.

Receiving

Palletized and parcel deliveries arrive at the docks in the receiving area (1). To initiate the process, receivers print a worksheet with a bar code for the purchase order and bar codes for each individual items. The receiver scans the PO bar code, then begins scanning items and entering in the quantities manually. Pallets and cases are labeled. Product can be put away as a full pallet, a mixed pallet or a partial pallet. Once that’s done, the receipt is posted and the inventory is ready for putaway.

Storage

Newly received inventory is stored in the upper levels of a pickable storage area (2), which includes a bay for pallet flow storage (3). Products can be relocated to a lower storage location for picking. SKUs are co-mingled to maximize the storage area. Pallets and cartons are scanned into a storage location and are now available to replenish a lower pick location.

Picking

Although the majority of orders are picked at the each level, some larger orders include case picking. In those instances, cases are picked to a cart from floor level storage
locations in the pickable storage area. A limited number of cases are picked from upper storage areas using man-up lift trucks, but in the future, that inventory will be relocated to floor level locations. Those pallets are then delivered to shipping.

For the majority of orders, Pocket Nurse uses zone picking from several pick modules (4), with individual items picked to a bin. An order may be one bin or dozens of bins. The majority of items are picked from flow rack in a multi-level pick module. Spiral conveyors at either end of the pick module take a bin to different levels to complete an order or induct a bin onto the conveyor system. Associates receive picking instructions on their wearable devices and scan items in their zone into a bin. Once all of the items in that zone are picked, the bin is placed on a conveyor that traverses the building (5). It is directed to the next pick zone until all the items for that bin are picked.

Packing

If the order involves more than one bin, bins remain on a recirculating conveyor (6) until the order is picked complete; only then are they sorted to a kitting area (7) or the pack station (8). In those work areas, an associate scans a bin and then removes items and places them in a box, or boxes depending on the size of the order, until everything is packed. As each box for the order is packed, it gets an internal label. After the entire order is packed, it is placed on shipping conveyor.

Shipping

Parcels are conveyed and sorted from packing to a shipping area (9) set aside for FedEx shipments. There, the internal packing label is scanned, the package is dimensioned, labeled and ready for pickup by the carrier.

System suppliers

Mobile computing, data collection and Wi-Fi networking: Rufus Labs and Staylinked
Conveyor and sortation: Automotion
Warehouse control system: Rockwell Automation
Enterprise resource planning system: Distribution One
Lift trucks: Crown (manups and pallet jacks) and Hyster (reach trucks)
Weighing and cubing: Cubiscan