Pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution companies can achieve a variety of benefits by employing an automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) in their production and warehouse facilities. There are, however, some caveats that must be considered. In this look at AS/RS in pharma, the major advantages will be presented.
One of the main benefits of automation in any application is accuracy. An AS/RS typically provides the most reliable guarantee of accuracy for the warehouse or distribution center. In fact, an AS/RS can help ensure customers and end-users get what they need from the distribution center when they need it, with service rates of 99.98%. This is compared to typical service rates for a more manual material handling system of around 97%, which is simply not acceptable in the pharmaceutical environment, where accuracy needs to be very tightly controlled.
The main challenge to generating an equivalent high accuracy in a manual solution is the number of checks that must occur to prevent errors. In a manual operation, every check is a touch and every touch has a cost associated with it.
The question to be asked is where does the cost of AS/RS as capital investment compare to all the “touches” that have to occur with a manual solution? Every situation is different for each company, requiring an in depth look at the operation. Also bear in mind that although the theoretical automated and manual solutions accuracy are close, when extrapolated out to the millions of pulls monthly/yearly, the impact increase rapidly.
For instance, a difference of only .002% over a series of 100,000 translates to 200 errors. How many pulls or puts does the facility make a day, week or year? How many errors will customers or the FDA tolerate?
Now consider something that is often overlooked when considering an automated solution for pharmaceutical distribution facilities. Usually automation is perceived as rigid. However, if good planning is used coupled with a good partner, companies can get all of the flexibility needed for the automated system.
If there are a high number of SKU’s with relatively low throughput for each SKU, the facility would be well served by an AS/RS; such as aisle-changing pallet cranes. For a more moderate throughput and a lower number of SKU’s, deep lane automated pallet storage is an ideal solution.
The needs of the pharmaceutical industry are the gambit. From the flexibility of seasonality, as well as, differing temperature requirements; pharma has an increasingly complex supply chain. A one-size fits-all application doesn’t work. With so many different needs by different customers, companies need to conduct extensive planning and research to ensure the solution deployed meets all performance and compliance demands. Not an easy task.
The accuracy and flexibility of today’s advanced ASRS’s and the software that run them deliver the performance needed by pharma companies facing increasing competition and more challenging product handling requirements. Automation has become table stakes in the industry and there’s no looking back to manual systems. For more information contact us here.
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