Swiss rollout at MDL
April 1st 2005 MDL provides distribution services to the Macmillan Publishing Group and third party distribution services to many other well known publishers, it employs 260 staff and has over 400,000 sq ft of warehousing space divided over three sites. At its largest Swansea site, which covers just under 300,000 sq ft, the company will deploy Swisslog’s WarehouseManager.
MDL was using the warehouse management functionality from the existing ERP system, over time this had been customised to meet the growing demands of the MDL business. While this system has enabled MDL to offer its customers high levels of service, it was decided that a new WMS would be required to offer the business and its customers a sound future proof platform, which the business can grow with. The new system will also allow MDL to take advantage of new technologies such as Voice Directed tasking and RFID initiatives.
To enable MDL respond to change quickly a configurable system was needed that could deal with the specific logistics requirements.
Features such as Task Interleaving and the fact that Swisslog WarehouseManager can be implemented with voice picking attracted MDL to the system.
At present Swisslog WarehouseManager will be implemented with RF picking, however MDL have the option to integrate voice picking into the operation in the future. The system will accommodate this with the use of standard proven interfaces to the voice hardware, therefore paving the way for an easy future deployment of voice. The system will enable MDL to increase traceability of the goods, improve warehouse efficiency and deal with future growth. More articles from Swisslog UK Ltd: | 
