Prescribing A Real-Time Warehouse

Medis Health & Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (Montreal) is Canada's largest distributor of pharmaceutical, health, and beauty aides. Its 14 warehouses ship products to Canadian pharmacies, hospitals, and healthcare institutions. Until 2000, Medis manually tracked all of the pharmaceutical and related items in its warehouses.

"We have close to 30,000 SKUs (stock keeping units), so it's important for us to have an efficient warehouse as well as accurate shipping," said Martin Losier, VP, information technology and CIO at Medis. The company wanted to install a wireless tracking system to provide product visibility from receiving through to shipping. With warehouses ranging in size from 50,000 square feet to 200,000 square feet, Losier knew this project was going to be a challenge. For help, he contacted Positive ID, a wholesale distributor who then recommended Montreal-based Scanpak, a systems integrator and label supplier.

One Way To Create A Real-Time Warehouse
The Scanpak-designed system features Symbol Technologies' (Holtsville, NY) WSS 1040 wearable scanners worn on the back of the hand of warehouse workers for most of the product tracking. Other workers use handheld integrated scanner/terminals (Symbol models 6840 and LS 2106). Metrologic (Blackwood, NJ) IS8500 overhead omnidirectional scanners read bar codes on totes as they move on conveyors to shipping. All of the scanners (except for the hardwired overhead units) communicate to the warehouse management software via Symbol's Spectrum24 wireless network. The overhead units are wired to the warehouse management system via an Ethernet network for real-time tracking. All scanned data is, therefore, immediately entered into the proprietary warehouse management system.

The Bar Code Label - The Crux Of The Warehouse System
When it came time to choose a bar code label printer, Scanpak brought in samples for Medis to test. In a warehouse environment, printer operation can be a challenge. "We try to keep our warehouses as clean as possible, but they tend to get dusty," said Mario DiBattista, director of networks and technology at Medis. "When printers get caked with dust, there's always the possibility for dust to get stuck on the labels," said Joe Pace, director of operations at Scanpak. "That dust affects adhesion and the ability to scan."

Medis needed to bar code pick lists, shelves, totes, and cases. In addition, since labeled totes are recycled back to Medis, the label adhesive had to be strong enough to keep the label attached until the tote was returned. Yet, the label also had to be capable of releasing from the tote when the container was reused. The chosen printer needed to accept the adhesive labels without getting gummed up. Ultimately, Medis chose SATO America's (Sunnyvale, CA) M-8400RVe and CL608e thermal transfer printers. The peel and present capabilities of the SATO printers were a definite plus to Medis, but the printers' ability to communicate with legacy Medis software was the clincher.

A 99.9% Accuracy Rate
Even after a few months of implementing the new system, Medis was realizing benefits. For example, the company had less "scratch" incidents (when a needed product was not in the warehouse as expected). The increased accuracy from bar code scanning and the up-to-the-minute information from real-time data collection improved Medis' record keeping information. Thus, warehouse workers weren't sent on wild goose chases looking for products.

During the 18-month project, Scanpak also established a password-restricted Web site for Medis to report problems. "By logging problems over the Web, we reduced multiple phone calls from Medis and were able to provide hardware replacements within 24 hours," Pace said.

As a result of the project, Medis increased receiving, put-away, and replenishment accuracy to nearly 99.9%. The company also reduced safety stock (extra inventory kept on hand as a backup), shortened turnaround time, cut shipment errors, and reduced product returns.