Pharma firm increases storage capacity
January 1st 2011 An ASRS with three cranes and 3,500 single deep storage locations alongside pallet
racking with 21,000 storage locations, a pallet conveyor system, a 78 sort lane tote
conveyor system and a pick-by-light system with 13 pick stations and 910 locations
were installed in Teva's new Castleford distribution centre
SSI Schaefer has enabled Teva UK to significantly increase
storage capacity, improve picking performance and sharpen
efficiency and customer service levels while reducing labour
overheads within its new distribution operation.
The design and build of a new automated distribution centre in
Castleford,West Yorkshire, was key to achieving these results,
handling not only immediate storage and distribution needs but
also accommodating future growth of the business.
Teva, part of one of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies in
the world and the UK's leading generic manufacturer of
pharmaceutical goods despatching over four million items per
day, continually evaluates service and products offerings to ensure
the company's continued success rates.
Working closely with Teva, SSI Schaefer designed and installed
the internal layout of Teva's new distribution centre, introducing
automation systems throughout the warehouse operation – an
Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) with three
cranes and 3,500 single deep storage locations alongside pallet
racking with 21,000 storage locations, a pallet conveyor system, a
78 sort lane tote conveyor system and a pick-by-light system with
13 pick stations and 910 locations were installed in Teva's new dc.
The whole operation is monitored and managed by SSI Schaefer's
Convey warehouse control system.
Items are picked using three different options; full pallets are
selected from the pallet racking, full cartons from the ASRS and
single items from the pick-by light system. Ergonomically
designed pick stations equipped with hydraulic pallet lifting
devices have been installed to help operators. Despatch methods
are dependent upon the size of the order and determined by the
warehouse management system, which also calculates carton
numbers and sizes per order.
JP Bednarek, operations manager, Teva, says: "Our new fully
automated storage and distribution facility has enabled us to
easily reduce our labour overheads by moving from a three shift
operation to two shifts. Perhaps most importantly, the increased
storage capacity allows us to handle immediate needs and will
also accommodate future
growth in the business." More articles from SSI Schaefer Ltd: | 
