AT the heart of Daisytek Australia’s new national distribution centre in Alexandria, NSW, is an integrated materials handling system developed with the help of Siemens Dematic (formerly Colby).
The system, which went live recently, handles 12,000 product lines from 150 manufacturers, compared with 4000 products from 100 manufacturers beforehand.
The new system takes order information from the company’s IBM AS400 and delivers it directly to the distribution centre floor. It provides real-time feedback on order progress, zone productivity, zone loading, container tracking and divert statistics.
Flexibility to select from variable zone maps helps to support workforce planning by allowing Daisytek to change the number of pickers required for each zone in order to obtain desired completion times.
Automation is provided by customised order routing and picking software package and a mechanised carton conveying and divert system - including zero pressure accumulation conveyors, transportation conveyors and Right Angled Power Transfer (RAPT) diverts.
An integrated conveyor system is used to carry orders between operators in different pick zones, reducing travel and handling time.
An accumulation conveyor provides product buffering to deal with temporary throughput imbalances between zones. Use of different storage equipment at the pick face caters for different product movement profiles and to allow an appropriate level of on-line inventory with appropriate SKU (stock unit) density.
Pallet racking is used for reserve storage and picking very fast split-case SKUs and full-case SKUs. Carton live storage has been established for picking fast moving split-case products. Steel binning is employed to increase the SKU density for picking slower moving split case SKUs
An integrated checkweigher and divert station allows Daisytek to weigh cartons and compare the actual weight with the expected weight as calculated during picking. If the actual weight differs to the expected weight by more than the selected tolerance level, the carton will be diverted in order to be quality checked by a QA controller.
To minimise paperwork, a wireless data network was developed based on Siemens Dematic/Teklogix radio frequency network infrastructure and RF scanning equipment. This ensures a high degree of data integrity, better response times, and improved pick accuracy.
The RF terminals support dual hosting, thereby allowing support of additional operations such as receiving, replenishment and put-away directly from its host system without the need for additional terminals.
Daisytek managing director Paul Connelly says his company success comes from delivering accurately, in full and on time, and also because of its ability to minimise operational costs for resellers.
Connelly says the key to its value-added service is its drop-shipping capability: where it can make next-day deliveries of any size, anywhere in Australia, direct to the end user on the reseller’s behalf, thereby removing handling and storage costs.
The company plans to offer full logistics consultancy services to help resellers re-design their supply chains for maximum efficiency.
Daisytek Australia 028394 4800.