Clearwater's BayCare Health System will start using robotics within its warehouse to improve supply distribution.
The BayCare Integrated Service Center in Temple Terrace will use 25 robots to support BayCare team members. According to a release, the robots will help improve accuracy in filling orders, decrease the physical demands for team members, and reduce delivery time to consumers.
"Being in the supply chain with BayCare for almost 30 years, I was thrilled to have the ability to implement robotics. It's almost something that you could only dream of," said BayCare's Supply Chain Director Victor Celiberti, in a statement.
The robots will work in BISC's "pick module area," a 258,000-square-foot distribution center that stocks IV tubing, bags of solution, bedside pans and personal protective equipment. The warehouse handles 12,000 daily orders to support BayCare's 16 hospitals and hundreds of locations, including doctor's offices, laboratories, ambulatory surgical centers and more across West Central Florida.
This model was started in 2007 and has allowed purchasing efficiency even throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Before the adoption of robotics at the distribution center, the order-picking process involved team members pushing carts weighing 300 pounds up and down each aisle, guided by voice technology through headsets. Robots will replace the carts as orders are now assigned to individual robots and displayed on a touchscreen for the team member's use.
Mapping software builds the most efficient route for fulfilling each order, and the robot travels to where the first item needs to be picked. A team member meets the robot, selects the items, places the items in the robot's tote and uses the touchscreen to tell the robot to move to the next item's location.
Once an order is complete, the robot is dismissed to the docking area where team members prepare the fulfilled order for shipping to the ordering hospital or facility, the release states.
"The integration of robotics in our pick module area has been a game-changer for us," added Celiberti. "We have seen a remarkable increase in productivity, which has helped offset some of the labor-related challenges we faced earlier. Our team members now feel more engaged and empowered in their roles."
