Automated robots
National IT distributor Leader Computers has upgraded its Sydney warehouse with an automated solution using Dematic’s AutoStore technology.
AutoStore is an automated storage, goods-to-person (GTP) picking, and fulfillment system designed to maximise warehouse space and minimise manual labour.
The system features nine robots, three goods-to-person ports and 6,662 bins.
Palletised products are manually delivered to an AutoStore port where an operator receives and loads them into totes delivered by robots.
As receiving tasks are completed, robots collect the totes for delivery to the high-density storage grid. As orders are received, robots then retrieve totes and deliver them in sequence to operators at two carousel ports.
Leader distributes products from more than 70 vendors including brands such as Microsoft, LG, Lenovo, Ubiquiti, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and Corsair.
They also manufacture Leader Computer-branded PCs, notebooks, tablets, and Intel white box series products.
“Throughout the pandemic, working from home and home-schooling really took off, and demand for IT infrastructure exploded," Dematic consulting manager, David Lamb said.
"This led to Leader Computers experiencing increased orders from the resellers and more pressure on their warehouse operations.”
In response to the increased demand, Leader Computers wanted to upgrade its warehouse with automation that would increase business efficiency, accuracy and productivity, as well as make better use of available space.
“The requirements for this automation project were: one, save labour; two, save warehouse space; and three, for Leader Computers to walk the talk of how to use technology to improve business,” said Lamb.
The Leader Computers warehouse in Lidcombe in western Sydney stores approximately 8,500 product stock-keeping units (SKUs), from very large server racks and monitors to small products such as thumb drives and central processing units (CPUs).
“Before the Dematic solution was implemented, a large order of a few different types of hard drives would take five to six hours to pick,” Lamb said. “With this new AutoStore system, they've been able to pick a similar type of order in just 30 minutes.”
The Dematic solution has already been built for significant annual growth over three years.
However, the AutoStore grid can also be easily expanded and progressively filled with bins and additional robots as SKU and storage demand increases, all with minimal interruption to operations.
“Leader’s purpose is to help our resellers grow and be highly profitable. We are always looking at ways to get stock to our resellers quickly,” Leader managing director Theo Kristoris said. “This solution allows us to ship fast and on-time to thousands of MSPs and IT resellers in Australia. We are proud to be at the cutting edge of technology and to bring this automation to our resellers.”
The implementation took eight weeks during a period of COVID-19 interruptions.
Dematic continues to offer 24-hour on-call support and scheduled maintenance.
“It’s been an honour to collaborate with Dematic on a pioneering project for Leader Computers, and we are pleased to see more supply chain businesses embracing advanced technologies to further enhance productivity and efficiencies,” AutoStore A/NZ business development manager Jason Wu said.
“Over the years, we have established a relationship built on trust and innovation and this project bears testament to this.”
