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"I highly recommend Distribution Technologies. I worked with them on several projects, each of which was brought in on time, on budget, and on quality. Projects ranged from pick-to-light systems to distribution center expansion and redesign. Distribution Technologies always created solutions that significantly reduced my costs per pick, for pack and ship, and also replenishment. They are true professionals."
Bruce T. Sharp Former V.P Operations Duncan Enterprise |
Strategy
If you need help with a particular pain point within your materials handling building or even simply suspect that the systems within the space could work better, then you are in our wheelhouse. We assess materials handling systems from a top down approach - always starting with the corporate strategy and following it down the path to the minor details and practicality of each process.
Fulfillment: Firmly in the context of your corporate goals and order demographics, we review and evaluate your order fulfillment process for opportunities to streamline and improve the process. Replenishment: The replenishment process can often be overlooked internally but shouldn’t. Inefficiencies in the replenishment process can offer just as many opportunities for improvement and subsequent ROI as the front side of the order fulfillment process. Assembly Process: Creating an efficient material flow system to support the assembly process is necessary to compete in today's marketplace. If work in progress can’t get through your assembly process, we can help. Our strategies involve designing workcell arrangement, component delivery, and work in progress flow - all around a sensible use of hardware and technology. Design
Distribution Technologies reviews the entire materials handling system as a whole and then tackles inefficiencies in each specific sub-area of the process. We have extensive experience and a proven track record in design, particularly in the following areas.
Distribution Center Design: Repositioning functional areas within the distribution center layout can often be a simple, powerful, and inexpensive way to increase productivity. Forward Pick Area: Forward pick areas are a high profile component of the overall system and they rightly deserve the scrutiny. An optimally designed forward pick area will match pick face mediums to the physical and transactional characteristics of the order lines. The design will include carefully crafted conveyance from the PM to the order consolidation area. And the structure itself will be designed to support product loading, occupant egress order picking activities, etc. Order Consolidation: Order consolidation improvements tend to be equipment/cost light and ROI heavy. Extensive routing and sorting analysis often uncover great opportunities to efficiently consolidate and process picked orders. Several methods for improving the verification process might increase order accuracy and improve the customer unboxing experience. Additionally, Distribution Technologies can often maximize throughput by developing improved processes and systems for manifesting and labeling shippable units. Shipping: After careful evaluation and analysis of each unique operation and product, Distribution Technologies designs and creates custom process and hardware solutions for order ID capture and transmittal to the sorting system. As always, our design goal is to strike the right balance between the most sophisticated/state of the art solution but tether it with practicality and budget. Reserve Storage: A well-designed reserve storage area will match the storage profile to the received product and the eventual consumption of the product from the received load to the forward pick modules. The design will also factor in the mix of full and partial pallets as well as hand stack areas best suited to support the migration of inventory from receipt to order fulfillment. Kanban/Work In Progress: Designing the right Kanban system starts with a strong understanding of several factors that are unique to each company and facility. Key among these factors is the need to balance chain of custody with efficient and timely delivery of work in progress and components to assembly stations. Implementation
Unlike most materials handling designers, Distribution Technologies is equally qualified and experienced at the post-design components of the project as well. Since there is no hand off to another third party, there is also no finger pointing or miscommunications. And perhaps most importantly, there is no loyalty to a single equipment manufacturer.
Equipment Procurement: Buying capital equipment is not a simple "off-the-shelf" purchase. Rather it is one component of a complex strategic puzzle that has to fit together perfectly to maximize ROI. Distribution Technologies works directly with the manufacturer to specifically configure a base piece of equipment to be a specific part of a customer's unique system. Project Management: Continuity is a key reason why Distribution Technologies projects have such a successful track record with our clients. Our clients have one DT project manager overseeing the entire project from proposal, through analysis, evaluation, design, integration, procurement, build out, and commissioning. This continuity in project management ensures accountability, no miscommunications, and no misunderstandings between the design and build phases. It also keeps projects on time and on budget. Commissioning: Even the best design process will not identify all of the potential use cases of a system. It is during commissioning that we discover these unknown use cases through hands on use of the system with live product and actual users. This process involves all of the stakeholders from Distribution Technologies and the client working together to uncover every possible use case and gap in the system so the appropriate changes can be made prior to the system going live. |
Key Points
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