Tag: Materials Handling

Sinocare, Asia’s largest blood glucose meters manufacturer, recently joined forces with Hai Robotics to implement a complete set of Autonomous Case-handling Robot (ACR) systems into their warehouse in Changsha, China.

Hai Robotics, a pioneer in Autonomous Case-handling Robot (ACR) systems for warehouse logistics, provided a deeper intelligent technology integration and development of in-plant logistics in the healthcare facility, delivering higher workflow efficiency rates and lower labour costs. Li Zhi, Senior Manager of Sinocare’s Engineering Department, said: “The strategy of digitised and intelligent supply chain transformation, with the ACR systems’ help, will continuously foster Sinocare’s business growth now and far into the future.”

ACR systems stimulate operational efficiency

ACR solutions provide a more efficient, easy, and accurate way to manage materials throughout warehouse operations. These intelligent solutions use HAIQ, a warehouse software management system developed by Hai Robotics, as the intelligent brain that manages all the processes enabling effective responses to fluctuating demands and navigating complex logistical challenges within the facility while maintaining maximum efficiency.

To meet the high demands of Sinocare’s flexible production line, Hai Robotics’ ACR solution was implemented to manage the movements of semi-finished products as part of the manufacturing process and in storage. The ACR system fully integrated with Sinocare’s existing Manufacturing Execution System, helping to provide whole-process digitisation of goods management.

This integration now allows operators to easily and accurately manage inventory, monitor the handling of products, and track the movements of inbound and outbound goods. As a result, Sinocare was able to achieve significant advancements in intelligent warehousing and intelligent manufacturing collaboration.

ACR systems improve storage density

Sinocare’s Changsha warehouse storing semi-finished products covers an area of 1,000 sq m and there was a need to store more goods while staying within the same storage footprint. By implementing Hai Robotics’ high-density ACR system, Sinocare was able to increase its storage capacity from 7,500 to 12,000 totes. This increased the average storage density to about 13 totes per square meter.

Hai Robotics’ ACR solution was able to achieve these metrics and enhance storage density largely due to two key contributors. The first, Hai Robotics’ ACRs are able to operate in tight spaces, most importantly in aisles under 1.2m wide. The second, two two totes can be placed one in front of the other on a shelf and two shelves placed back-to-back, effectively realising double-deep shelving and reducing the total number of aisles and creating a high-density storage unit that is four totes deep and accessible from two sides. These shelving units were then stacked to 4.4m high throughout the warehouse.

ACR intelligent picking liberates manpower

Traditional warehouse management relies heavily on manual labour, which presents many challenges regarding availability, costs, and efficiencies, while other companies are gaining ground with the use of efficient automation. For facilities that still operate manually, normal human error, slow and low-efficiency operations, and natural physical limitations often result in a delay in facility maintenance, expired storage, and failure to replenish parts in a timely manner when inventory is low. These issues can create major problems for operations. Sinocare recognised the need to automate to enhance the productivity of their workers and maximised workflow efficiency.

Sinocare’s Changsha warehouse was able to double their per-worker efficiency rate with the implementation of whole-process automated storage and handling of totes containing their semi-finish products, while reducing the strain of previously laborious tasks. When inbound goods are received, a robotic arm grabs the loaded totes and places them on a conveyor belt.

Hai Robotics’ ACRs then retrieve the totes and deliver them to appropriate locations on shelves in the high-density storage area. When it is time for goods to move out of storage, the ACRs retrieve the tote from storage and transport it to a temporary storage shelf where an AGV then brings the goods to a production line. The automated solution also helps to create a better work environment for people. Operators can now track and manage the system from a dashboard without strenuous work.

Unlocking the potential in healthcare warehousing

Founded in 2002, Sinocare is a leading high-tech enterprise committed to using biosensor technology to produce and sell products for rapid detection of diabetes and other chronic diseases.  As the largest manufacturer of blood glucose meters and test strips, Sinocare has taken over 50% of China’s retail market of blood glucose meters.

Together with Hai Robotics, Sinocare aims to build an intelligent warehousing system for semi-finished products to unlock the potential in healthcare warehousing.

Successful retailers are geared to performing well at peak. But what happens when labour is scarce and volumes are unpredictable? Craig Whitehouse, Managing Director at independent systems integrator, Invar Group, offers a survivor’s guide to peak season.

Depending on the line of trade, seasonal peaks crop up with the regularity of British Prime Ministers – from Diwali, Halloween/Bonfire Night, through ‘Black Friday/Cyber Monday, all the way to Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, and Easter. The front end of this is rightly termed the ‘Golden Quarter’ – it’s where most retailers make most of their sales. But the peak of peaks, is always Christmas – never easy, and this year likely to be more than usually complex and unpredictable.

With the UK and world economies teetering on recession, it is a safe bet that in volume terms, Christmas trade will be more subdued this year. Does this make coping with the seasonal peak any easier? Quite the contrary.

Many consumers, exposed to inflation, uncertain as to future income, and perhaps anticipating distress level pricing by retailers, will be postponing their purchasing to the last minute, exacerbating the ‘peak’. Meanwhile, retailers and distributors who have controlled or reduced headcount – or have failed to attract staff even for the ‘normal’ level of trade – will have fewer bodies they can call on for overtime or extra shifts. And more than ever, a sale lost because goods are not immediately available is a sale lost for good.

This is true across channels. E-commerce as a proportion of sales has fallen back a little, but at around 30% is still well above pre-pandemic levels. However, resupply to physical stores this Christmas may be even more crucial – many consumers will not be buying for their Christmas events: ‘going shopping’ may be the Xmas treat. Moreover, we can expect a further peak in returns – not because the goods are in some way ‘wrong’ but because many consumers would rather have the cash value of the kindly-intended ‘gift’.

With so much uncertainty, it may seem counter-intuitive to suggest that investment in automation is an important part of the answer. Certainly, until a few years ago, ‘automation’ equated to ‘mechanisation with some intelligence’ and typically involved serious civil and mechanical engineering, only justifiable for companies with high and predictable volumes of throughput. However, things have changed significantly. Intelligent automation is now both highly flexible and scalable, and is far simpler to install – no heavy engineering required.

Far from the rigid, fixed conveyor systems and heavily racked solutions of the recent past, Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) can navigate routes efficiently even if their geography has changed. And increasingly they can work safely alongside human co-workers, rather than having to be fenced off. Well established techniques such as pick-to-light, or pick-to-voice, coupled with appropriate automation, can offer workers far more rewarding, and error-free, conditions – improving staff retention and, perhaps, enabling wage enhancements.

Using these new resources efficiently depends on sophisticated, flexible Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) that can be easily tailored to individual applications and the simple integration of ‘best-of-breed’ hardware. Adaptability is key, for example, picking protocols, that can be incorporated and implemented centrally and ‘on the fly’ – no need to individually re-programme each machine.

In addition, these solutions are more often than not, easily scalable. It’s quite a simple process to add, or subtract, AMRs and mobile shelving units, with the WMS being similarly adaptable. And increasingly, these elements are available on lease rather than outright purchase, offering businesses relatively risk-free avenues for meeting demand at peak.

But perhaps, most importantly, automation isn’t ‘just for Christmas’. The point is that it can be scaled and flexed to give benefits throughout the year, in both peak and slack seasons. Intelligently designed and flexibly integrated warehouse automation can bring a multitude of savings to an organisation challenged by labour shortages and a need to affordably hit peak volumes. Using automation wisely can enable a business to not just simply survive, but thrive.

BEUMER Group, a leading global supplier of automated material handling systems, has been awarded a contract by Helthjem, a relative newcomer to the Norwegian express parcel delivery business. This is the first time Helthjem introduces automated sortation which has happened in a close partnership with BEUMER to select the right automated technologies and system for Helthjem’s business.

Helthjem’s success and rapid expansion – driven by the increase in e-commerce that has led to a 15% market share – has necessitated this first-time automation investment, which will help maintain its service levels and optimise operations. The new parcel terminal in Vestby in the South of Norway consists of a production hall of approximately 12,000 sq m plus an office department with support and administration functions.

It is here that a new automation system, designed and delivered by BEUMER Group, will optimise Helthjem’s sortation and further distribution of parcels. This is the first time Helthjem has automated sortation, having hitherto been a purely manual operation. The new system is designed to handle 50 million parcels per year and help Helthjem combat labour shortages, as the design includes automatic cage tippers and singulation of parcels that make Helthjem less dependent on having a large team of operators to manually place each parcel correctly. The BEUMER system will take care of most of the handling, from the moment parcels are emptied to the system until they are sorted for further optimised distribution.

The BEUMER system will largely eliminate manual handling, reducing the number of touch points from four to five for every parcel to only once for some of them. This will have a huge effect on speed and accuracy of throughput.

Lars Beier Madsen, sales director for BEUMER Group’s Logistic Systems, said: “We are pleased to join Helthjem at the beginning of their automation journey. The flexibility we offer with our systems is a perfect fit for their expanding business model. The ability to expand and adjust the system makes the investment future proof.”

Founded in 2015, Helthjem originally specialised in newspaper distribution and built up an extensive network that has enabled it to expand its business to cover the express delivery of parcels. It currently handles 16 million parcels per year, with the ability to offer a 12-hour delivery time to 50% of the Norwegian population.

Speaking about the benefits of the new system, Helthjem’s Anders Lunde Angen, director for e-commerce, commented: “This is our first venture into automation after years of purely manual operation, but any concerns we had were eased by the high level of competence shown by the BEUMER team. The system will enable us to expand our offering rapidly and we anticipate a reasonably fast ROI. During the Covid pandemic we saw the consumer-to-consumer sector grow by 500% and we continue to believe in the growth of e-commerce – and even more in the consumer-to-consumer business, for which we offer no-fuss delivery door-to-door by means of nothing but a handwritten code.”

The system will open in the summer of 2023. It will initially have an operational capacity of 15,000 parcels per hour, with the ability to expand built into the design.