Completed WMS projects
KNAPP AG
Pharmaceutical distribution par excellence
Customers
HEFAGRA
Completion
27.11.2007
Country
Spain
Branch
- Pharmaceutical industry
Description
Task description
The cooperative HEFAGRA is a trade association of 700 pharmacies in the province of Andalusia, Spain. Hefagra supplies its customers with products from the entire range of the health-care sector from the headquarters in Granada. The company has approx. 100 employees and an annual turnover of 190 million euros.
Hefagra realised a distribution centre with the following requirements:
• Increase in automation
• Meeting route departure dates while accepting orders later
• Improvement of delivery quality
• Monitoring of entire warehouse with a warehouse management system
• Increase of throughput for peak hours each day
• Automation of goods-in area
• Efficient handling of slow-moving products
• Construction of new building in a high-risk earthquake area
• Preparatory steps for future lot tracking
KiSoft WMS
The high-performance warehouse management system KiSoft WMS constitutes the core of the logistics solution. With the visualisation software package KiSoft i-POINT, Hefagra can switch on and off, monitor and operate the entire warehouse as well as individual areas.
Goods-in area
During the goods-in process, expiry dates and lot IDs are registered in the WMS and each product is automatically allocated a storage location after the goods have been checked and weighed. Registration of the lot ID ensures complete traceability of all pharmaceuticals from producer to consumer.
High-bay racking system for containers
The high-bay racking system was realised by a Smart-Storage-System. The storage locations are operated via three stacker cranes which are responsible for storage and retrieval, replenishment of products and reorganisation within the system. Up to two containers at a time can be transported in one run and the software ensures route-optimised storage and retrieval processes. The regenerative braking system
of the stacker cranes feeds power into the public supply network, thus ensuring a number of economic benefits.
Order processing
Fast and medium moving products are processed with the oft proven KNAPP autopickers. Stacker cranes automatically provide replenishment to autopicker channels. The replenishment of the flow rack
is guided via radiofrequency. For the MPS, partial orders collected manually using RF terminals are, similar to an autopicker, automatically merged. In order to meet the high throughput requirements, the system is operated in the patented „dynamic zone mode“, which ensures that the staff-work allocation is optimised. Slow-moving products are automated with the TD-Lean. With the space-saving and cost-efficient automatic
order processing of TD-Lean KNAPP was able to offer Hefagra an ideal solution for its range of generic drugs. In the manual stations products are picked from the flow rack using RF terminals. The staff receives information via radio frequency, which is displayed on the hand-held terminal.
All movements within the facility are completely ergonomic and are guided over the shortest routes.
Goods-to-man picking
The OSR principle makes it possible to achieve an especially high picking performance in the most ergonomic and efficient way. In comparison to conventional stacker cranes, the moving mass of the OSR shuttles is significantly lower, thus leading to a considerably higher supply of containers with lower energy consumption, and allowing more profitable order processing.
Pick-to-Belt
Extremely fast-moving products and products which cannot be supplied in containers are picked directly from the pallet storage area or flow racks via radiofrequency. The shipping labels are then attached and
the products transported to the dispatch area on the Pick-to-Belt system.
Goods-out area
The completed containers are automatically addressed, given shipping documents, sealed, strapped, diverted to the dispatch area and sorted according to route. The intervals between routes are thus reduced by 30 percent.
Contact person
Rudolf Solnier
Telephone: +43 316 495-2637
rudolf.solnier@knapp.com
