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A look inside a McLane Distribution Center

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 A look inside a McLane Distribution Center.

There are several types of automation and robotics that can be found in a distribution center, including:

  1. Conveyor systems: These systems use belts, rollers, or other mechanisms to move products through the distribution center. They can be used for sorting, transporting, and merging products.
  2. Automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS): These systems use robots or cranes to move products into and out of storage racks or shelves. They can be used to store and retrieve products in a high-density storage environment.
  3. Pick-to-light systems: These systems use lights and displays to guide workers to the correct products and locations for picking and packing orders.
  4. Voice picking systems: These systems use voice commands to guide workers through the picking process, reducing the need for paper-based picking lists.
  5. Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs): AGVs are vehicles that move automatically through the warehouse, transporting goods to their destination. They can also be used to transport goods between different sections of the warehouse.
  6. Automatic Packaging systems: These systems automate the process of packaging goods, from filling and sealing the package, to applying labels and other identification marks.
  7. Automated Sortation systems: These systems automatically sort and direct packages based on their destination. They can be used for sorting packages by carrier, destination, or other factors, and can be integrated with other automated systems, such as conveyors and AGVs.
  8. Barcode and RFID scanners: These scanners are used to track products as they move through the warehouse, ensuring accurate inventory and order fulfillment.
  9. Robotics: In addition to the above, some distribution centers also use various types of robots to perform tasks such as:
    • Palletizing and depalletizing
    • Loading and unloading trucks
    • Picking and packing
    • Quality control and inspection
    • Repetitive tasks that are dangerous or physically demanding for human workers.

These types of automation and robotics systems are designed to improve efficiency, accuracy, and safety in the warehouse operations, and also to reduce labor costs and increase productivity.

A great video on a state of the art McLane Distribution Center.  If you have never been inside a distribution center there is movement every where.  Get the product in and get the product out.  Hope you enjoy the video.

Logistics Quotes.

  • “I could regularly travel first class, but having money in abundance doesn’t seem like a good reason to waste it. Why should I choose first class? To be offered a glass of champagne from the air hostess? If it helped me arrive at my destination more quickly, then maybe.” ~ Ingvar Kamprad, Supply Chain Guru
  • “If you think of standardization as the best that you know today, but which is to be improved tomorrow; you get somewhere.”  ~ Henry Ford, founder Ford Motor Company
  • “Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better.” ~ W. Edwards Deming
  • “I paid every effort to seek deregulation throughout FEDEX’s start-up and expansion periods, because the biggest impediment to our growth was the government regulations that restricted new entry into the air cargo market.” ~ Frederick W. Smith, founder of FedEx
  • “Why not make the work easier and more interesting so that people do not have to sweat? The Toyota style is not to create results by working hard. It is a system that says there is no limit to people’s creativity. People don’t go to Toyota to ‘work’ they go there to ‘think’” ~ Taiichi Ohno
  • “All businesses need to be young forever. If your customer base ages with you, you’re Woolworth’s.” ~Jeff Bezos
  • “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”  ~ W. Edwards Deming
  • “Leaders win through logistics. Vision, sure. Strategy, yes. But when you go to war, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets at the right place at the right time. In other words, you must win through superior logistics.”  ~ Tom Peters

Distribution Center Training.

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