Pharma; Claygate, May/Jun 2010 by Rollason, Craig
Driven by market demands, the error-free warehouse is within reach, according to Craig Rollason, Head of Sales & Marketing for KNAPP UK Ltd. In this article, he describes the technologies bringing the Holy Grail of materials handling ever closer.
The common characteristics of most pharmaceutical products – relatively small size and uniform shape – have made the pharma sector a fertile bed for warehouse automation. Highly efficient A-frames that pick goods fully automatically onto a central belt up to 200 m long are common in pharmaceutical distribution centres worldwide, along with conveyor systems, automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) and robotic palletizers. AU four of these elements feature in the largest pharmaceutical warehouse in Europe, installed last year for The Co-operative Pharmacy in the UK.
The results of such automation are quite staggering. For example, a warehouse is being constructed in Brazil that will handle 5 million single unit picks per day, – a feat that only a few years ago was unthinkable. Competitive pressure in the pharmaceutical wholesale sector is such that the drive for innovation and improvement never stops. Speed and accuracy of delivery are critical for wholesalers to prevent pharmacists from placing their business elsewhere. The resulting pressure on logistics automation providers to improve the performance of material handling systems is currently driving two trends in our business: the universal shuttle concept and the error- free warehouse.
Independent Shuttles
The universal shuttle concept is based on minimizing the number of different technologies used around the warehouse. This has a whole range of benefits including a manageable number of components, high reliability and redundancy, a shorter start-up phase, lower maintenance costs and total system scalability. A number of suppliers are embracing this philosophy. KNAPP’s OSR (order, storage and retrieval) shuttle system, for example, combines shuttle-based storage with pick-to- light stations (Figure 1). With independently operating shuttles on multiple levels in each aisle, served by a lift at the aisle end, the solution achieves up to six times the rate of totes in/ out than a traditional ASRS, while having approximately 20% less footprint for the same number of locations. At a time when increasingly more companies are concerned with lifetime costs, the fact that the OSR uses less than 10% of the energy consumption of a typical ASRS is also a compelling feature. Another key benefit of shuttle-based storage is improved availability – if one shuttle is out of action, only one level is inaccessible, not the whole aisle.
Eliminating the Margin of Error
The other key platform for innovation – the error-free warehouse – embraces a much wider range of logistics technologies. The simple fact is that nothing can rival the flexibility and dexterity of the human frame for some complex order picking processes, but introducing a manual element in the warehouse means there is also the capacity for error. A number of innovations have been developed to mitigate this. For example, special check stations can be integrated into conveyor lines in the dispatch area. These allow all items in a picked order to be automatically checked by 360-degree barcode reading, to prevent the wrong goods or the incorrect quantity being shipped, with the check station also recording the batch numbers of the products dispatched. These final check stations, which have short payback periods, can be coupled with a weight checker to identify suspect totes or can simply be fed a random percentage of orders. Another example of this kind of innovation is the introduction of light curtains in semi-automated picking stations, with the breaking of the light beam verifying that the picked item is being placed into the correct pick-to-tote.
Order Accuracy
Picking accuracy is universally desired, but it is also increasingly becoming a legal requirement. US pharmaceutical companies serving the niche, but growing mail order or ‘central fill’ segment, face a stringent regime of ’3 strikes and you’re out’ regarding misdelivery of controlled substances. The constant threat of the whole warehouse being closed down makes accuracy vital
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