THE CUSTOMER
Set up by brothers Kirit and Jayanti Patel when they acquired two pharmacies in 1975, the Day Lewis Group has grown steadily and is now the UK’s largest independent pharmacy chain, with a turnover of £160 million and 165 outlets across the country. As well as the retail operation, Day Lewis is also involved in the wholesale pharmaceutical business and offshore medical supplies to oil rigs and shipping companies.
THE CHALLENGE
Previously based in Thornton Heath in South London, the Day Lewis management decided that the group needed more space and relocated its headquarters and warehouse operations to a 60,000 sq. ft. facility in nearby Croydon in 2007. Day Lewis took the brave decision to make the move in just one day. Incredibly, the warehouse ran at over 80% on the first day and was fully operational within two weeks.
THE SOLUTION
The new handling system features a 600-channel A-frame autopicker with product lines being stored in either multiple channels or individual channels of different heights to match their order profiles. Many of the slower-moving and physically larger lines are manually picked at one of six order picking stations that utilise RF technology. Says Ian Mulley, “The system enables an average order to be processed – from transmission to dispatch – in under 20 minutes. Efficiency has greatly improved and picking errors have been dramatically reduced.”
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