Pharmacy storage and retrieval systems save costs
To optimise workflow and save costs in hospital pharmacies automating medication selection is increasingly popular. Since the 1980s, the firm Apostore, based in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, a subsidiary of KHT (Kommissionier- und Handhabungstechnik GmbH), has constantly extended its technological lead in this field of manufacturing, and the company reports that its Carryfix Pusher leads the market in German and Austrian hospital pharmacies.
‘This picker works with pushers that sort the goods directly into ward containers after removing them from the shelves lying flat at a depth of one metre,’ Apostore explains. ‘In this connection, the advantages are obvious: space-saving and consisting of extendable modules, the Carryfix Pushers can automatically place medicines and medical accessories into storage at a speed of 1,500 packages per hour. In total, there is space for up to 100,000 packages on the shelves. At the same time, the storage channels are dynamically assigned and administered. Channels becoming free can therefore be equipped immediately with new, possibly different goods; the maximum picking capacity is 2,500 packages per hour. Merely one to two persons are required for operation of up to 9,000 goods movements with the Carryfix Pusher.’
Goods on pallets or those that cannot automatically be picked (the infusion store and non-medical articles) can be managed and additionally picked with the firm’s new paperless picking system as an integral part of the Carryfix Pusher software.
Optimal coordination
‘The scope of supply of the Carryfix Pusher includes materials handling technology e.g. for automatic empty container in-feed, discharge to post-picking sections, cycle starting without dynamic pressure at the checking work station, sorting for delivery tours etc. and naturally also an extensive, individually selectable software package,’ Apostore adds. ‘ In that way, unproblematic connection to all of the existing economic systems of a hospital is ensured. To be particularly emphasised in this case is the direct communication interface BAPI for SAP systems. With this software, the Carryfix Pusher manages all of the goods movements in hospital pharmacies, and/or in the central stores of the hospitals.’
Details (in several languages): www.apostore.de
07.07.2010
