Order dwell time is down and efficiency is up at Brodart's 75-year-old building. Conveyors, computer controls lead the way.

Brodart Co. faced a question that many other companies have undoubtedly struggled with at one time or another. Should we upgrade our existing distribution facility or build a whole new one?

Every company has to answer that question in its own way, of course. But for Brodart, which provides "value-added" book distribution services to libraries around the country, the answer was to improve on what they had. In this case, it was a 75-year-old multi-story building in Williamsport, PA.

Operations in the Williamsport building, which houses Brodart's Books and Services Division, had always been primarily manual. The only conveyor equipment in place was used to move orders from the second floor picking area to the first floor where the various shipment-preparation activities took place. Over time, changing customers' requirements resulted in more value-added operations, and therefore additional material movement.

On the ground floor the orders were moved from station to station on large book carts. Yet while these carts were ideal for transporting books, they were not particularly suited for Brodart's order processing activities. "You may have 30 different orders on a single book cart," explains Kenneth L. Shafranko, Brodart's project manager. "None of those orders could move to the next stage of the process until the work on the last order on the truck was completed." The result was that orders sometimes sat needlessly idle, lengthening the order-processing time.

The company needed a way to reduce the dwell time, expedite order flow, streamline operations, and keep pace with a dramatic growth in order volume. The solution came in the form of a new conveyor and computer control system that maximized the existing space and building configuration.

It's an integrated system of powered and non-powered conveyor equipment from Hytrol that wends its way around a thicket of columns in a highly efficient manner. Wepco Inc., a Hytrol distributor based in Pittston, PA, was the prime contractor on this project, which became operational in March of 1997. Design and engineering was handled by St. Onge Ruff and Associates of York, PA. Specialized Computing Systems of Norristown, PA, installed the computer controls.

The results to date have been impressive. More than 1,500 orders a day are handled swiftly and efficiently. Management enjoys tighter control of the order flow process. And order processing time-from initial receipt of the order to shipping-now takes 3-4 days. In the past, that number had been closer to two weeks.

A Streamlined Process

With the new conveyor installation, Brodart no longer is dependent on the slow-but-steady book carts. Orders are picked into totes on the second floor and move on a belt conveyor down to the first floor. It is on this level that all of the value-added activities take place--jacket covers on the books, anti-theft applications, property stamping, labeling, and cataloging.

There is substantial variability between any two orders as to how much value-added process each will require. When the orders are passed to the conveyor control system nightly, routing is included for each order. This routing maps the sequence of the operations that must occur for each order. The conveyor control system accepts a tote at the point of induction in picking and then uses that routing to manage the flow of that tote through all the required steps. The conveyor control system not only keeps track of where each tote is and has been, but also makes decisions about where to send a tote as it tries to level the load at each of the workstations where value-added processes occur. If a tote is destined for a workstation that happens to be full, the conveyor system will send it around the loop and give it additional chances to divert to the intended workstation.

The totes enter the first floor on an elevated live roller and accumulating conveyor that recirculates around the 200,000 square-foot facility. That main conveyor line transports the totes down one side of the building toward five pivot diverters, each of which directs the orders to a different lane. Four of these lanes lead down to processing areas where operators perform the value-added activities, working either on slow-moving belt conveyors or gravity units. The fifth lane is a bypass lane, dedicated to orders requiring no further work.

After the initial order-fulfillment work is done, the totes are placed on an incline conveyor that links up with the main recirculation conveyor. They travel to another series of diverters that sends them down to the final shipment preparation area. Here the orders are scanned, multiple totes are assembled by order, and the shipment paperwork is produced. Depending on the complexity of work required, some orders will have arrived in packing going through the conveyor system just once. Other orders will have recirculated through the various processing steps in up to seven circuits.

The scanned orders then move back on the main conveyor and head to the packing station. In this area, they are readied for delivery to the customer via parcel or LTL carrier. The process is smooth and efficient, requiring virtually no manual handling or transporting.

Bonus Benefits

Working closely with Wepco, Hytrol, and the other partners in the project, Brodart achieved its primary goals of faster order processing and lower dwell time. Another benefit that was achieved was much tighter control over the order flow process. Under the old system, project manager Shafranko recalls, if there was a problem or question with an order, workers had to go out on the floor and "hunt" for that order on the carts. Today, by contrast, any order can be quickly and easily identified through the bar-coded tote identification or the pick-and-pack number. What wasn't entirely anticipated was that since the dwell time underwent such a substantial reduction, the amount of inquiry into an order's status and location in the process was also greatly reduced.

One special feature incorporated into the system has been especially valuable. That is, orders contained in multiple totes are kept together by the computer controls. This enables the operators to complete these orders more quickly, efficiently, and accurately--qualities that Brodart's customers appreciate.

The new conveyor-based order-flow system came just in time. Order volume at the Williamsport facility has increased a full 18 percent over the past year. "If we didn't have this new system in place," says Shafranko, "it's unlikely that we would have been able to handle the increase."

Next year, Brodart will have an advanced warehouse management system (WMS) up and running, which will further enhance productivity and control. And as the improvements continue, the company becomes more and more convinced of the wisdom of its decision to remain in the Williamsport building.

The Brodart Operation at Williamsport

Book orders picked on the second floor move down a belt decline conveyor onto an elevated conveyor that circulates around the building and ultimately leads to the packing and shipping area.  Pivot diverters direct the totes from the main conveyor down to the work processing stations.  There the "value-added" activities take place such as adding book cover jackets, anti-theft devices, property stamping, and labeling.  Orders are completed at the final preparation area and then moved back onto the elevated conveyor for transport to the packing area.  The facility now processes more than 1,500 orders a day.

Details on the Installation

Company: Brodart Company, Books and Services Division
Facility: Warehouse and Distribution Center
Location: Williamsport, PA
Size: 200,000 square feet
Employees: 450
Key personnel: Kenneth L. Shafranko
Product Handled: Books for libraries
Throughput: 1,500 orders per day
Types of conveyors: Live roller (190-SP), zero-pressure accumulating (190-SPA), horizontal power accumulating (190-ACC), belt (TA), and pivot diverters
Conveyor Supplier: Hytrol Conveyor Inc., Jonesboro, AR
Conveyor Distributor: Wepco, Inc., Pittston, PA
Controls: Specialized Computing Systems, Inc., Norristown, PA
Engineering: St. Onge-Ruff & Associates, York, PA  

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