Worldpac/Advanced Auto Parts

Worldpac/Advanced Auto Parts success story retail and ecommerce distribution center 3d drawing model
Worldpac/Advanced Auto Parts success story retail and ecommerce distribution center 3d drawing model

Background

Everyone’s had an unhappy experience. The repair shop had promised your car would be ready on Tuesday. But the necessary part still hasn’t arrived yet. So now you’ll have to wait until the end of the week… .or maybe even longer.

WORLDPAC is doing everything it can to make this all-too-common scenario a thing of the past. This nationwide distributor of automotive parts for imported vehicles has streamlined its entire operation to ensure that the parts reach the repair shop when promised. WORLDPAC’s modern, 123,000 square-foot distribution center in Edison, N.J. is a key part of that effort.

WORLDPAC is a company on the move, having recently acquired the auto parts distributor Metrix. The company operates two distribution centers-one in Newark, Calif., the other in Edison, New Jersey. The Edison facility ships to 31 branch replenishment offices as well as to individual repair shops around the country. About 60 percent of the parts handled are sourced domestically; the remainder comes from overseas.

Challenge

Before installation of the new system, order-fulfillment was a largely manual operation, says Patrick J. Healy, the company’s director of distribution. “The people moved through the facility, not the order,” Healy recalls, adding that today it’s the other way around.

Facts

  • Location: Edison, NJ
  • Facility: Distribution center
  • Solution: Hytrol live roller, heavy-duty incline, and gravity conveyors

 

Figures

  • 123,000 sqf
  • 160 employees
  • 36,000 auto part SKUs
  • 1,000 orders per day

Automation Integration

There are two types of orders: those going to the branches and those going direct to repair shops. Picking for both types starts in the zones on the ground floor. Items are packed into totes and placed on one of two incline conveyors for transport up to the picking stations on the mezzanine. Computer-generated reflective tapes guide the consumer-direct totes through the picking process. The totes for the larger branch replenishment orders are color-coded.

The main conveyor line on the mezzanine is a horizontal live-roller unit (SPEZ model) with Hytrol’s unique EZ Logic accumulation feature. EZ Logic automatically senses product presence and effectively controls the accumulation and release of product through the four picking zones.

Pop-up transfers automatically move the totes onto gravity conveyors at the picking stations. After all, items have been picked at one station, the operator places the tote back on the powered conveyor for movement to the next station if further picking is required. The computer controls built into the system ensure that orders involving multiple totes stay together.

The completed orders move back out on the takeaway conveyor, travel around a curve segment, and then head down the incline to the shipment-preparation area. Branch replenishment orders go directly to a separate section of the distribution center. There, the operators build pallet loads, which will be delivered by company trucks.

The customer-direct orders are diverted onto a powered conveyor line that takes them through packing and manifesting. These orders are handled by express carriers for next-day delivery.

 

Outcome

The new operation boasts a simple and streamlined order-flow that all but eliminates manual handling and movement. The system integrates several of Hytrol’s most popular units: live roller, gravity, and heavy-duty incline. Healy and his staff worked closely with Century Conveyor, Inc. in the design and installation. Century Conveyor, also based in Edison, is a systems integrator and Hytrol distributor.

The new system is fast, flexible, and responsive. It’s been designed to swiftly handle different sizes of totes as well as corrugated boxes. Also, oversized parts like tailpipes can move unimpeded throughout the distribution center.

"The totes go through the system flawlessly. They go through quickly, too. A customer-direct order can be picked, checked, packaged, and manifested in as little as 20 minutes."
Patrick J. Healy
Director of Distribution

In addition to the speed and responsiveness, shipment accuracy has increased, too. Plus there’s one more benefit: The systems integrator is located only a few miles away. “If there’s a question or a problem,” says Healy, “I know that Century Conveyor can get here right away.”

In the end, the biggest beneficiaries of the streamlined Edison operation may be the end-consumers. Their cars are ready when promised-and they get on with their lives.

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HD Smith/AmerisourceBergen

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Background

Before the implementation of the conveyor system, H. D. Smith had only two separate pick lines, one for over-the-counter products and one for prescription products. The total conveyor system then was only about 100 feet of powered conveyor and 300 feet of gravity. In implementing the new conveyor system, the company’s main objectives were to increase primary pick locations from 15,000 to 30,000, increase worker productivity, and shorten cycle time.

Automation Integration

RECEIVING: All receiving is done at the north end of the building. The product is received and brought by pallet to the receiving stations and scanned into the system. Products are removed from every carton and placed into a barcoded tote. All corrugate is deposited into an overhead trash conveyor (Hytrol Model TH) which carries it to an automatic baler located outside the building. The product is then married to the tote. The mainframe computer communicates with the conveyor control system (CCS) and tells the CCS which zone to send the tote. The totes are then conveyed across the building to the pick module, sorted to the correct zone, and placed into the correct pick location.

PICKING: Orders are printed in waves at the order induction station. Each order has its barcode denoting an order identification number. The pick sheet is then married to a barcoded (license plate) pick tote. The host system then communicates to the CCS which pick zone or zones the tote must be sent. The tote is then routed only to the required pick zone(s).

CHECKING: Once an order is complete, the tote is conveyed to the checking area. The checkers remove the tote from the Hytrol zero-pressure accumulating conveyor (Model 190-ABEZ) and scan the pick ticket. Each item is then scanned and placed into a shipping tote. When the order has been confirmed complete and correct, a lid is placed on the tote. The tote is then placed onto the conveyor and moved to the shipping sortation conveyor (Hytrol Model SC). The computer communicates the license plate and its assigned sortation lane to the CCS.

SHIPPING: The totes are conveyed to and through an automatic strapper. The strapped totes are then inducted into the sortation system, the license plate is scanned, the appropriate sortation line determined, and the tote is sorted out.

EMPTY REPLENISHMENT TOTES: Once the replenishment totes are empty, they are placed on the line with the pick totes. On each pick level, there is a divert location where the empty replenishment totes are diverted off and conveyed back to the receiving station to be reused.

Outcome

Before the installation of this system, the average lines shipped per DC worker was 40 per hour. With the new system, the average is currently 104 lines per hour. Pickers are picking 250-300 lines per hour. Checkers are checking 350-400 lines per hour. In the past year, the volume has increased by 50%.

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Recycle Ink

Steel drum conveyor system
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Background

When Recycle Inc. had the opportunity to design a new container processing plant from the ground up, an automated conveyor system was high on the list of priorities. Company managers wanted to replace a largely manual handling operation with a conveyor-based automated approach that would be both more efficient and safer.

Based on the new facility’s first few months of operation, they were right. Employee productivity climbed 20% just in the first week of start-up. Throughput projections predict that the new plant will process four times as much material as the old plant did in the same amount of time and with the same number of employees.

Challenge

Jeffrey Bey, President of Recycle Inc., cites several reasons behind his company’s decision to switch to automated handling. “Essentially what we are is a manufacturing operation,” Bey explains. “We use one process to wash and prepare containers that will be reused, and another process to shred or granulate containers that are to be destroyed.

“Our incoming raw materials are the containers themselves. These containers — especially the larger ones — tend to be unwieldy, and some of them are fairly heavy. In the past, we handled the containers manually at several points during processing. Given our throughput requirements, we had the potential for accidents, and our approach wasn’t very efficient. As the demand for our services escalated, we knew that we needed to come up with a completely new way of handling containers — one that would take advantage of the benefits offered by automation.”

After the company located a suitable building for a new facility in South Plainfield, New Jersey, Bey assembled a project team to study new materials handling methods. The team contacted several nearby conveyor distributors for design ideas. According to Bey, some distributors balked at the idea of getting involved in up-front design work without first being assured that they would get the job.

“We were looking for ideas,” says Bey, “and we were also looking for a distributor and a conveyor manufacturer that would partner with us on this project.” Fortunately, the local Hytrol Conveyor distributor, South Plainfield-based Century Conveyor, didn’t hesitate to tackle the project.

Facts

  • Location: South Plainfield, NJ
  • Facility: Container management
  • Solution: Hytrol chain-driven live roller conveyor and accumulation sections

Figures

  • 86,500 sqf
  • 70 employees
  • 5 to 85 gallon IBC and polyethylene containers
  • 80,000 containers per month

Automation Integration

Working closely with the project team, representatives from Century Conveyor, from Hytrol, and a nearby automation firm designed a conveyor system that combines powered conveyors with smart sensors and custom software. At every decision point in the system, sensors supply feedback to the control program on the movement of individual containers, on the performance of the conveyors, and even on the maintenance requirements of the sensors themselves.

At the company’s old processing facility, employees manually handled much of the incoming containers. The plant did have a conveyor system in place, but it was a single straight-line design that simply transported the containers from one workstation to the next. The old conveyor system did not include any powered transfers or spurs.

The design of the new conveyor system at the South Plainfield warehouse greatly reduces the amount of manual handling by relying on automated conveyors to move the containers.

The new plant inspects and cleans 5- to 85-gallon polyethylene containers and intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) for reuse. Also, it provides certified destruction of 5- to 85-gallon polyethylene, steel, and fiber containers, and of IBCs.

Incoming containers are transferred from trucks to one of four takeaway conveyor lines. Based on their composition, disposition, and whether they will be prepared for reuse, the containers are carried by the conveyors to several possible destinations.

Containers that are to be reused are conveyed to an inspection loop where employees evaluate their condition. Powered roller conveyors then carry the containers that have passed inspection to one of three fully automated washing stations. After washing and another inspection, the containers are ready to be returned to their owners for reuse. All of these containers are captive within a closed-loop system between their owners, customers, and the South Plainfield plant.

Containers that are slated to be destroyed are conveyed to other workstations within the building for processing. In this part of its operation, the facility handles containers made of steel, polyethylene, or fiber.

Conveyors carry steel containers to a shredder; the scrap metal that is generated goes to electric mini-mills to be made into reinforcing rods for use in concrete construction projects. Polyethylene containers are ground into pellets which are then sold to be made into various corrugated plastic products including plastic drums. The fiber containers are conveyed to a workstation where they are broken down before being supplied to a paper mill for recycling.

Except for the belt conveyors that carry materials to waiting trailers, nearly all of the conveyors used in the new system are powered roller. Strategically-placed accumulation sections control the grouping of the containers before being transferred to workstation infeed conveyors. At two points, powered turntables rotate the containers 180 degrees (see drawing).

Outcome

“This new system is enabling us to process 80,000 containers per month with almost no manual handling,” notes Bey, “and it can handle a lot more. So in addition to being far more efficient and having a much greater throughput capacity, we now also have a facility that’s substantially safer for our employees.”

Century Conveyor Systems enabled full-function industrial container management, and the new system exponetionally increased tthroughput. Faster order-picking and increased flexibility helped Recycle Inc improve order-filling accuracy and stability.

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