Medline Industries Healthcare Distribution Center

Project Overview

Medline Industries Inc., the largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of healthcare supplies in the United States, partnered with Swisslog in 2013 to transform its supply chain and increase capacity. This groundbreaking project represented the first company in the United States to deploy a Swisslog robot-based AutoStore system.

The initiative was driven by the need to meet the demanding requirements of modern e-commerce, where customers expect faster service with cheaper delivery. Online retailers seek every possible advantage to outperform competition, and automation provided the solution to achieve the speed and efficiency needed in healthcare supply distribution.

Swisslog's revolutionary order fulfillment system addressed the limitations of traditional person-to-goods order fulfillment, where human workers must walk aisles gathering products, with performance affected by individual size, strength, speed, and fatigue.

Technical Solution

AutoStore Goods-to-Person System

The facility features Swisslog's Click&Pick AutoStore system, a high-speed goods-to-person order fulfillment solution powered by robots. The system delivers products directly to workers at ergonomic pick stations, eliminating the need for manual walking through shelving systems.

Key Features

The Click&Pick system achieves remarkable throughput of up to 1,000 picks per hour per person, representing a five-fold improvement over the best human performance in traditional shelving systems. The robot-powered operation ensures consistent speed and reliability throughout extended 22-hour workdays.

The ergonomic pick station design contrasts sharply with traditional manual operations that require bending, stretching, and reaching. The system's simplicity enables rapid training, with new workers becoming fully qualified production operators in just minutes.

With minimal moving parts, the system maintains high uptime, ease of repair, and long operational lifespan, translating to significant return on investment for healthcare supply distribution.

Results & Benefits

The automation solution delivered exceptional performance improvements, achieving five times faster picking compared to manual operations. The system's capacity of 1,000 picks per hour per person set new standards for healthcare distribution efficiency.

Worker ergonomics and safety were significantly enhanced through the elimination of physically demanding tasks like bending and stretching. The system's reliability and high uptime ensured consistent operation critical for healthcare supply chain continuity.

The fast training capability allowed Medline to quickly scale operations and maintain flexibility in workforce management. The automation provided the competitive advantage needed in the fast-paced e-commerce retail environment through superior speed, efficiency, and accuracy.

Challenges & Solutions

The primary challenge was meeting the increasingly demanding requirements of e-commerce customers who expect faster service with cheaper delivery options. The solution involved implementing Swisslog's Click&Pick AutoStore system, which provided the revolutionary order fulfillment capabilities needed to create competitive advantage.

Another significant challenge was overcoming human limitations in traditional order fulfillment, including fatigue, variable performance, and physical constraints. This was addressed through the robot-powered AutoStore system that works consistently 22 hours daily without performance degradation, while human workers focus on higher-value tasks at optimized pick stations.

System Integrator

Swisslog provided comprehensive automation expertise as the system integrator, delivering the groundbreaking robot-based AutoStore solution. Their partnership with Medline represented a pioneering deployment in the United States, setting new standards for healthcare supply chain automation.

The Swisslog team brought cutting-edge technology that combined robotic efficiency with human operational excellence, creating a synergistic system that leveraged the strengths of both automated and human components for optimal performance.