DC Velocity - August 2016

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ered, the totes for each customer go to a consolidation station, where a worker removes the items from the order totes, scans them to reconfirm order accuracy, and then consolidates the products into a separate plastic tote for shipment to the customer. Containers destined for customers without inspection systems are closed and sealed with a special security tape with a chemical base that will display a message if the tape is peeled off or tampered with.

The completed shipping totes are next conveyed to a sequencing AS/RS on the first floor. This system has two aisles, with the capacity to hold 1,280 totes until they are ready to ship. At that time, they are released from the buffer in the proper sequence to match the delivery routes of shipment centers downstream, passing through a robotic system that automatically places the totes onto wheeled trolleys. SKUs picked as full cases that can ship in their original cartons are loaded onto separate trolleys. The trolleys are then wheeled onto trucks in the sequence determined by load planning software. Some trucks will head directly to customers, while others first go to a logistics consolidation center to be broken down by delivery route.

MORE PRODUCTIVE WITH LESS LABOR

The automation design at Toho Holdings has met its goals. The machines, along with the 130 associates working alongside them, are able to process 200,000 pieces a day with near-perfect accuracy. That amounts to about 30 billion Japanese yen worth of product monthly, or about US$300 million at current exchange rates.

The automation has also markedly increased productivity. TBC Saitama is 77 percent more productive than the company’s other logistics facilities, while using only half the amount of labor, according to Toho’s executives.

But, of course, the main reason for the automation always comes back to the quality of processing. “We want to make sure that products going to patients are always accurate. That is why we pursued automation. We always want to improve our quality,” Morikubo says.

The design has been so successful that it will be replicated for other DCs Toho will build in the future. A new facility in Hiroshima is slated to open next year using most of the same designs, with tweaks to improve upon TBC Saitama’s capabilities. In the next distribution facility, Morikubo says, Toho is aiming to automate about 90 percent of its handling.