Health System Services is a distributor of home health care products to individuals, hospitals, and nursing facilities. Health System Services has multiple regional distribution facilities with the headquarters, showroom, and distribution warehouse for WNY based in Niagara Falls.
SITUATION
Through recent growth, the current Niagara Falls building housing the offices, showroom and distribution warehouse has become congested. The warehouse, which receives returned goods, cleans, repairs, and tests these products; receives and stores new goods; picks orders; and loads multiple daily trucks for delivery, was too congested to operate effectively in approximately 5,500 sq. ft. of space.
SOLUTION
HSS purchased an empty former 19,300 sq. ft. manufacturing facility to relocate the warehouse and some offices. HSS contracted with Insyte to assist in laying out this facility for the warehouse operations to effectively receive, repair, test, store and distribute their products.
Insyte, working with HSS employees, captured the current layout in AutoCAD, learned the operational tasks of the warehouse, the frequency of receipts, deliveries, and returns, and determined the storage requirements and methodologies.
In parallel, an AutoCAD drawing of the new facility was created, including building constraints. Alternative layouts for the relocated warehouse were developed and discussed with HSS personnel until a consensus for an effective warehouse was reached.
“Insyte’s facility relocation expertise relieved the burden on HSS personnel while maintaining our input and ensuring a fast turnaround.” – Jeff Rose, Sr. Vice President
RESULTS
- 39% increase in storage for racked products.
- 1,500 sq. ft. of offsite storage was relocated to the new facility, eliminating annual expenses.
- Doubled dock space and staging for receiving & shipping of goods.
- Expanded repair/ testing area by 1.5x and included environmental controls.
