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From SCDigest's On-Target E-Magazine

May 11 , 2011

Logistics News: Medical Device Maker DJO Global Finds Success with Mobile Robotic Picking System

New Solution from Kiva Delivers Payback, Supports Lean Distribution Center Approach; From Walking 3 Miles per Day to Product to Picker Approach

SCDigest Editorial Staff

As we've noted many times before, robotic technology in several forms is starting to make real penetration into distribution centers, including a new generation of AGV-based robots that can support order picking in ways that traditional AGVs never have.

That includes the unique approach from Kiva Systems, which offers a "mobile robotic fulfillment system," which in summary involves dozens or even hundreds of smart robots on which product for picking is stored or can be carried. Kiva describes this inventory as being on "mobile shelves" or pods that the robot can pick up as order demand for the product comes to the floor.

SCDigest Says:

The system has dramatically reduced the non-value added walking time, solving the original operational challenge. "People spending most of their day walking - that has been eliminated with the new system," Martin says.

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Through an advanced control system, the product on the robots is then brought to stationary workers for full or split case picking, as well as potentially other stations for QC checks, replenishments, or other tasks. This is a "product to person" approach.

For split case picks, the operator stations would typically feature a cart with multiple cartons or totes on it, and a pick-to-light type system that tells operators what cartons on the cart need the SKU(s) brought by the robot for an order along with the quantity. Other approaches to pick direction, such as lasers identifying the product to be picked, can also be used.

You can see a few quick shots of how the Kiva system works at the video below. For the complete case study and discussion in our Videocast, go to: Lean & Warehouse Automation can Go Together - the DJO Case Study.

To date, the majority of Kiva's customers were in the e-fulfillment arena, including Zappo's and Staples.com.

But a recent Videocast on our Supply Chain Television Channel featured how DJO Global, a company with a broad array of medical related products ranging from knee replacements to orthopedic bracing products, is using the Kiva system its DC in Indianapolis. The fact that this is a very different company than a dot com, and how the decision to go with the robots was heavily influenced by DJO's Lean approach to distribution, make it an interesting story.

According to Steve Martin, director of operations in Indianapolis, the DJO operation there had traditionally been almost all manual.

"We had people with a piece of paper, a pencil and scanner, with a large cart where they were pulling product up and down the aisles." Martin said on the Videocast. "The vast majority of the time they spent wasn't picking product, it was walking up and down aisles getting to the product."

Martin said that in the company's Lean-oriented operation, looking at an analysis of non-value added activity in the Indianapolis DC showed that about 80% of it was walking the floor. In many cases, workers walked 3 miles in a single day.

DJO wanted to solve the problem, but the question was how. When the company looked at other forms of material handling automation to address the issue, there were two challenges. First, most of these systems had high capital investment requirements.

Clips of Mobile Robots in Action at DJO Global

View Full Videocast Here

(Distribution/Materials Handling Story Continues Below)

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Second, the ROI usually was very dependent on "batching" orders in some way, which was in some case inconsistent with DJO's Lean approach to distribution, and could actually lead to delays in completing orders. In some cases, DJO literally has just a 20 minutes to get a "hot order" from the time it is received onto a parcel truck.

With the challenge being to reduce the level of non-value added walking, a system where the product is brought to the workers was inherently appealing, though the approach was something much different than they were used to.

"As we first looked at it, I was a bit skeptical," Martin said. "I knew it would be a big project, but as I looked at it, it became more and more logical. It made sense."

After that analysis, DJO decided to go ahead with the system to manage the picking for most of its 10,000 SKUs. As the system was commissioned, aisles of racking were taken down, with the inventory moved to Kiva's mobile shelves.

The system handles the DC's volume of about 1600 orders on average per day, and uses several different type of operator stations, from different order picking stations to replenishment stations (14 station in total). The stations can flexibly be changed based on seasonal, daily, or shift-specific work requirements.

For example, when minimum inventory levels are reached, a robot automatically brings a shelf over the a replen station in reserve inventory to have additional stock added to the cart, after which the robot moves the shelf back to the pickable inventory area.

According to Peter Blair, director of marketing communications at Kiva, a common question is whether there has to be anything special about the floor, and whether wires to guide the robots are needed.

"The floor can be a basic warehouse floor, as long it is reasonably flat, with no major cracks in it," Blair said, noting that even those with cracks can simply have the filled. "The robots move based on a grid of bar code labels that they read on the floor. No other wiring or other changes are required."

According to DJO, the project has had many benefits.

First, it has provided a high ROI, with less than a 2-year payback.

Second, it has dramatically reduced the non-value added walking time, solving the original operational challenge. "People spending most of their day walking - that has been eliminated with the new system," Martin says.

Third, the system has reduced training time for new or temporary workers from several days to just hours. Newer associates don't need to learn how to navigate and do their jobs across the whole DC, but rather say just how to manage one system-directed picking station to begin with.

Finally, DJO says any new system in its operation had to be flexible, and that the Kiva system has delivered this flexibility imperative.

"Kaizen and continuous improvement is really at the heart of our culture here," Martin says. "Kiva allow us to keep making changes, which is essential to our operating philosophy."

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