Industry Solutions | Enotek Group’s Intelligent Logistics Solution Helps the Pharmaceutical Industry to Improve the Warehousing Efficiency by 2-3 Times, and the Warehouse Storage Capacity by 4-5 Times.

With the aging of population, the improvement of domestic medical level and residents' consumption level and many other factors have greatly promoted the development of China's pharmaceutical industry. In order to meet the growing demand for health, the higher warehousing and distribution efficiency as well as order accuracy and optimized operation process are urgently needed to be improved through intelligent upgrading of warehousing and logistics.

INDUSTRY PAIN POINTS

1.     No error for orders.

a.     Order needs the most accurate picking and safest transportation.

b.     Order batch and validity period are traceable.

c.     Strictly comply with Good Supply Practice (GSP) is required.

2.     Stress on Order Quantity

a.     Growing retail orders.

b.     Selection pressure faced by highly seasonal drugs.

c.     Retail and wholesale orders at the same destination need to be optimized and reorganized.

d.     The requirements for timeliness of delivery are getting higher and higher, often requiring delivery on the same day or the next day.

3.     Stress on Warehouse Management

a.     Goods need to be accurately located at any time.

b.     A large number of goods information need to be managed (usually with more than 10000 SKUs).

c.     High dismantling rate, sometimes achieve above 70%.

d.     The construction cost of civil engineering is generally high. Because of special requirements such as heat preservation and shade control, the construction cost of civil engineering is generally more than twice that of ordinary normal temperature warehouses, and in some cases, it is about 2.5 times that of ordinary normal temperature warehouses.

INTELLIGENT LOGISTICS SOLUTIONS FOR PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

1.     Do in-depth research and find out client needs, then provide project design that fits the customer's business characteristics.

2.     Intelligent WMS/WCS system can deal with complex order management during peak periods and seasonal sales.

3.     Use the efficient and stable ASRS system to create an automatic warehouse for clients to meet the high inventory demand of enterprises.

CASE STUDY

The company mainly has several business segments, including biological products, traditional Chinese medicine, and pharmaceutical，they need to deliver them to major hospitals, clinics and pharmacies in the province. With the development of business and the increasingly growth of orders, the enterprise expects that the annual sales will reach 2 billion. In order to cope with the future business development, the enterprise decided to establish a new warehouse covering an area of 2,975 square meters to deal with the expected 14,000 orders per day. Through the investigation and scheme communication of several suppliers, Enotek Group was finally selected to design the logistics solution for its new warehouse.

Location: Jiangxi

Time: 2020

Floor Area: 2,957 square meters

User Type: Medical distribution center

PROJECT DIFFICULTIES

1.     Space utilization of geometric multiple in limited space.

2.     Informatization has been achieved in drug storage, packaging, circulation, distribution, and the accuracy of BCR code reading has exceeded 99.7%.

3.     The sorting efficiency can reach 2,500 boxes per hour, the order processing capacity is improved while the error rate and circulation cost are reduced.

SYSTEM EQUIPMENT

1.     ASRS storage system including 5 stacking cranes with a height of 22 meters, a total of 10,080 pallet positions.

2.     A "goods-to-person" picking system including 30 AMRs, with a total of 21,120 cargo spaces.

3.     A put wall system with 198 electronic tags.

4.     1 set of WMS warehouse management system and 1 set of WCS warehouse control system.

PROJECT DETAILS

1.     Warehouse Entry

After the goods are checked and accepted, they are palletized in the vertical warehouse. After the palletized goods have passed the quality inspection, they are taken and placed on the storage conveyor by the forklift, and then transferred to the storage platform by the conveyor, and picked up by the stacker to complete the storage according to the principle of equal distribution.

The vertical warehouse has 5 single-deep stackers and 10,080 pallet positions, and the overall put in and delivery from storage flow can reach up to 175 pallets per hour.

2.     Dismantling and Replenishment

The sorting area of the distribution center is located on the first floor of the warehouse, and the ASRS warehouse is used for replenishment. After the pallets from the second floor of the vertical warehouse are picked up and unstacked by the forklift, the full container of goods will be put onto the box conveyor line, transported to the dismantling area on the first floor by the screw conveyor. AMR will send the corresponding mobile shelf to the replenishment platform, and the operator will scan the barcode of the goods through the RF terminal to replenish or store the goods according to the displayed information.

The dismantling area consists of 30 AMRs, 704 sets of mobile shelves and 11 replenishment platforms, with a total of 21,120 cargo compartments. The replenishment efficiency can reach 200sku per day.

3.     Picking and Packaging

When the WMS sends the picking order information to the AMR, the AMR will send the corresponding mobile shelf to the picking workstation. The picker scans the barcode of the empty turnover box through the RF terminal to bind the order information, and picks according to the out of storage order information on the bulletin board, and then review and pack.

The picking area consists of 18 groups of shelves, 198 electronic labels and 9 picking workstations. The picking efficiency of the AMR "goods to people" picking area can reach 1,800 order lines per hour.

4.     Sorting and Out of Storage

The packed order is sent to the code reading and identification place by the conveyor. According to the barcode information of the carton, the order is combined and sorted at the sorting port. The order is manually stacked on the designated tray according to the train number and loading sequence. The sorting efficiency of this process can reach 2,500 cases per hour.

So far, the order has completed its entire logistics process in the distribution center, and then it will be loaded and shipped.

PROJECT ACHIEVEMENTS

1.     Highly intelligent operations from receiving goods to order delivery, greatly reducing the pressure of manual work, compared with traditional warehouses, it achieves highly automated and greatly saving staffing with a total of more than 20 operators, and increasing the efficiency of warehouse entry and exit by 2-3 times.

2.     Achieve the high-density storage of goods, ensure the maximum utilization of warehouse space, and increase the storage capacity of the warehouse by 4-5 times compared with the original warehouse.

3.     The entire warehouse operation process can be monitored in real time through the WMS software. The perfect information management system alleviates the warehouse management pressure of goods, reduces errors caused by human factors, and meets the relevant management requirements of first in, first out by batch number for drug circulation.

CLIENT’ S COMMENTS

Compared with the traditional pharmaceutical distribution center warehouse where I worked before, the work intensity of this new warehouse is much lower now. My WeChat step count has changed from one of the tops to only a few hundred steps per day. And I feel very interesting to work with these autonomous mobile robots.

——A picker in the new distribution center of pharmaceutical company