Squadron Medical
New canopy gives productivity a welcome boost
The challenge
Rapid growth in the business was causing a pinch point in the joined goods receiving and despatch area of the warehouse.
The solution
To install a canopy that would alleviate the pressure on space, create room for additional storage and boost efficiency of the operations process.
Key facts
- Non-pharmaceutical medical supplies
- Warehouse close to capacity
- Clean environment
- Canopy room for three lorries
- No need for civil engineering groundworks
- Full turnkey service
Project overview
The team at Squadron Medical’s warehouse in Markham Vale are responsible for picking, packing and despatching non-pharmaceutical supplies to hospitals around the country. Rapid business growth started to put pressure on the facility, which was already close to capacity.
Operations manager Sue Nevitt says“it became apparent that lack of floor space was causing a backlog. We utilise the warehouse very tightly already with high bay, very narrow aisle racking served by VNA trucks. Like most warehouses, ours is a little like the Tardis! But elastic walls only work up to a point, so we looked for a solution to help us expand our footprint.”
CopriSystems installed a canopy specifically for receiving goods, sorting products for despatch and loading lorries. It covers two despatch doors and includes additional racking storage, which acts as a holding area for packaged goods. Utilising existing concrete floors, there was no need to do any civil engineering groundworks, which reduces the budget considerably and takes weeks off the project.
Time was also a factor in ensuring the canopy was installed without compromising the day-to-day business or impacting on the clean environment within which Squadron Medical need to operate. In fact, the job only took two and a half days in total!
With other depots to the north and south, goods have always been relayed at this warehouse but the canopy has increased the efficiency of cross docking as goods now don’t have to hit the floor.
Sue explains: “Having the canopy from CopriSystems has doubled the space we have for sorting our goods in and out. It has helped us to streamline the process and now the workflow is much more fluent inbound and outbound.”
Squadron Medical opted to rent the canopy for 5 years and at the end of that contract period in 2021, we were instructed to take it down due to market changes resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. However, at the same time, their sister company, TPS Healthcare, identified a need for their own temporary canopy. No sooner had one been taken away than another, measuring 15m wide x 10.7m long x 5m internal height, was being installed on it’s own 5 year rental contract. This new structure will be used for goods marshalling, freeing up the aisles in their warehouse and helping to keep a more consistent temperature in the main building when opening doors.
Meanwhile, we will be servicing the canopy used by Squadron Medical in preparation for it’s next call-up.
