Swisslog Holding AG last week announced that Cardinal Health will install an AutoStore system empowered by Swisslog in its new at-Home Solutions distribution center in Grove City, Ohio. The facility is part of Cardinal Health at-Home Solutions' multi-year strategy to increase warehouse capacity to accommodate rapid growth.
“Working with Swisslog to equip our facility with market-leading robotic automation technology like AutoStore further enhances our ability to quickly and efficiently get critical supplies and products to patients when and where they need it most,” stated Rob Schlissberg, president of Cardinal Health at-Home Solutions.
“As we work to accommodate the growth we’re seeing as a business, we’re taking critical steps – such as working with Swisslog – to ensure our facilities are modernized and our supply chain is as resilient and strong as possible,” he added. “Technology like AutoStore is making it easier for us to manage labor shortages and helping us recruit leading technology and supply chain talent to our team, which is critical to our continued success.”
Cardinal Health is a distributor of pharmaceuticals, a global manufacturer and distributor of medical and laboratory products, and a provider of performance and data solutions for healthcare facilities. The company has been in busineess for more than 50 years, and it has operations in more than 30 countries and approximately 46,500 employees globally.
AutoStore to lighten Cardinal Health workers' loads
The distribution center in Grove City will be the first Cardinal Health's first to use AutoStore technology to make employees’ jobs less physically demanding, said the companies. Because the robots bring products directly to employees for packing and shipping, they can help decrease human error and bring more speed to order fulfillment, according to Swisslog.
AutoStore claimed that its order-fulfillment system is the fastest one per square foot in the market. It includes autonomous robots that move on top of an aluminum cubic grid. Within that grid, storage bins are stacked on top of one another.
The robots continuously pick up, rearrange, and deliver bins directly to connected ports for order picking and replenishment. Designed to handle any kind of small parts, the high-speed robots are accelerating manufacturing, warehousing, retail, and distribution operations worldwide.
SynQ works with ASRS, enterprise software
The AutoStore system at Health at-Home has 31,844 storage bins providing 83,000 cubic feet of storage for 14,154 SKUs. The automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) runs on Swisslog’s SynQ software, which provides warehouse management, material flow, and automation controls.
Swisslog added that SynQ offers a single, modular platform that integrates with host systems and other warehouse and logistics software.
“Our automation experts are working closely with the Cardinal Health team to design a solution that will continue to put at-Home Solutions customers and the patients they serve at the center of their focus,” said Sean Wallingford, who became president and CEO of Swisslog Americas in January.
“Our automation experts understand best how to optimize configurations and deployments to help ensure companies like Cardinal Health realize operational objectives and achieve the needed ROI [return on investment],” he said.
Swisslog, a leading automation integrator, rebrands
As a leading AutoStore integrator, Swisslog said it has 370 AutoStore projects in more than 26 countries, featuring over 9 million storage bins and using over 13,000 robots. Applications range from micro-fulfillment centers to stand-alone projects and larger, fully integrated systems, said the company.
Swisslog is part of KUKA Group, a leading automation supplier with more than 14,000 employees worldwide. The company this month announced a rebranding to reflect its emphasis on digitization and the strengths of its staffers.
At ProMat 2023 this week, Swisslog is exhibiting at Booth S3823 in McCormick Place in Chicago.
Editor's note: For more around ProMat, visit Robotics 24/7's special coverage page.
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