Chris Bint, distribution manager at Vygon (UK) explains that when the company relocated from Cirencester to Swindon in 2011, the WMS allowed the company to keep track of stock as it completed a staggered consolidation of three old warehouses into the new site ahead of schedule.

The warehouse is geared to the needs of all customers, but particularly the NHS, which it supplies in two main ways. Many items are supplied as palletised bulk or consolidated orders to replenish stock in the seven regional NHS Supplies warehouses. These orders, known internally as Consign Build, are typically delivered to each warehouse once a week. Orders which fall under the NHS Blue Diamond designation are supplied only when they are ordered by a hospital or other facility. These are usually delivered to end users within 48h which means a same-day response from Vygon.

With orders taken until 5pm and with despatch until 5.30pm operations, including the WMS, must be adaptive to ensure items can sometimes be picked and processed in less than 30min. In addition to meeting its next-day commitments, the company typically achieves a two-day turnaround on orders.

The warehouse stocks about 2500 lines, with bulk items stored at the rear in 12m high-bay racking served by pallet handling trucks and a picking zone in front. Separate areas for order preparation, packing and despatch are further towards the front of the building. Goods are double-checked on arrival and items are rechecked at almost every stage of their journey through the warehouse.

“We capture the majority of internal mistakes before products leave the facility,” says Chris Bint. “Our accuracy-to-customer during 2015 and 2016 was 99.98%.”

An interface between Vygon’s ERP system and Empirica, created using the WMS’s integration module, enables seamless, automatic transfer of all vital information. Once items are accepted, the WMS allocates the best putaway location using rules devised by Vygon to maximise efficiency by reducing unnecessary stock handling movements. With one check, pallets are directed to free spaces previously occupied by identical products to maintain simplicity. Another check identifies available space in pick faces, using information such as product codes and batch numbers for stock rotation, to bypass bulk storage areas altogether. Pharmaceutical products are allocated to designated areas for compliance reasons. All tasks are managed using handheld RF scanners that interact with the WMS.

Apart from modifications to support specific processes, the main way the WMS has evolved has been through removing redundant confirmations and keystrokes associated with various tasks. With order picking operations, for example, six button presses were removed while consolidated scheduling means operatives only need to visit the same pick face once for a wave of orders. Four more button presses have been removed from post-pick sorting where simple colour-coding of trolleys helps identify specific orders, tasks and priorities.

Packing desk operations have been similarly improved. Items are picked onto trolleys and must be checked and labelled before packing for delivery. This involves a number of interactions with the WMS such as scanning barcodes, reading on-screen information, verifying batch numbers, checking customer information, clicking various buttons, printing and applying labels and so on. Eliminating confirmations and other unnecessary mouse and button clicks has optimised the overall process so that each parcel can be checked and labelled 15 seconds quicker than with the original, standard setup based on real-world timings made by the company.

With Consign Build, remodelling processes such as order picking, sorting and packing resulted in time savings equivalent to 1/3 of a full-time employee and payback within three years. The company has employed a similar approach to re-engineering its Blue Diamond order processing and this resulted in a migration from manual to electronic manifests.

“We have saved around 50 button presses across the warehouse as well as making other efficiencies,” says Chris Bint. “Our forthcoming changes will save us around eight working days per month based on peak rates. The ability to mould the WMS gives me scope to save labour. If the potential ROI is OK, we sign it off and Chess does the work.”