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Ryder System, Inc. achieved an elite certification from the Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC). The recognition comes after the company reimagined the traditional distributor model for healthcare supply chain management. Ryder then engineered a self-distribution model with a highly automated consolidated service center (CSC) in St. Louis, Missouri, for BJC HealthCare, which serves 14 facilities with more than 3,200 beds in the Midwest.
Ryder voluntarily entered the WERC Warehouse Assessment and Certification Program, which provides a robust industry standard-grading methodology. It requires an independent audit of 114 processes in eight core areas of warehouse operations, including receiving and inspection; material handling and put-away; slotting; storage and inventory control; picking and packing; load consolidation and shipping; shipment documentation; and warehouse management system. Only facilities that achieve a minimum score receive WERC certification and recognition.
The self-distribution model includes:
- A highly automated 416,000-square-foot CSC for medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and everyday supplies, engineered and managed by Ryder
- A fully optimized, dedicated outbound transportation network with professional drivers trained specifically to meet unique needs, also engineered and managed by Ryder
- A professional operations team — recruited, trained, and managed by Ryder — to ensure a culture of continuous improvement to drive efficiencies and keep service levels high
Inside the CSC, the AutoStore™, an automated storage and retrieval system, increases storage capacity and fulfills orders 24 hours a day, continuously feeding 1.3 miles of conveyors and giving the supply chain increased speed and reliability. And Ryder’s proprietary real-time visibility and collaboration technology RyderShareTM enables everyone to easily see across the supply chain, work together to prevent costly delays, and find efficiency gains.
With this fully integrated, customized solution, the effort has achieved:
- 100% real-time visibility
- 100% inventory control
- 99.75% inventory accuracy
- 99.7% fill rate
- 99% on-time delivery
“From the warehouse to the point of delivery at the hospital, our RyderShare technology ensures everyone knows exactly what is in each delivery, down to each tote and its location on the truck — a key differentiator when dealing with life-saving supplies,” says Ryder President of Supply Chain and Dedicated Transportation Solutions Steve Sensing. “Patient-centric care has been paramount in reimagining the traditional healthcare supply chain model. When you start there, and you have two teams bring extraordinary expertise and achieve a remarkable level of collaboration, that’s when real change happens.”
