Maybe the world's largest automated assembly system?

Abstract

Purpose

To examine how a very large order assembly system can be designed and commissioned to achieve a throughput of filling 2,400 order totes/h with medical prescription orders.

Design/methodology/approach

To combine RFID and bar code scanning, individual pill bottle handling, pill dispensing, pre‐packaged carton dispensing with some computer directed manual operations were key to meeting a goal of automatically filling tens of thousands of line items per day.

Findings

Combining automated pill dispensing with automated small item order filling and computer directed pick‐to‐light manual item picking results in a single integrated system. A careful design by experienced suppliers is important to achieving successful commissioning in a timely manner. Read/write RFID technology plays an important role in insuring accuracy and traceability of each prescription bottle.

Originality/value

Shows that complex order filling applications such as the highly regulated medical prescription filling can be automated to obtain improvements in accuracy and through put while reducing direct labor costs.

Citation

Bloss, R. (2007), "Maybe the world's largest automated assembly system?", Assembly Automation, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 20-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/01445150710724667