‘Creating More Value Together in the Healthcare Chain’

The diversity of orders within the Mediq supply chain calls for smart and efficient logistics. Automation plays a key role in this. The collaboration between Mediq and KNAPP at the Bleiswijk distribution center enables the supplier of medical devices and related services to, for example, handle deliveries down to the resident or department level within healthcare facilities. At the same time, Mediq serves patients with home deliveries.

The partnership between Mediq and KNAPP dates back many years. A key milestone for the partners was the consolidation effort in 2017–2018, during which Mediq consolidated six warehouses into a single location in Bleiswijk. From this fulfillment center, the medical device supplier serves customers in the Netherlands and Belgium. The increased capacity at this warehouse paved the way for a major automation initiative. The first steps in this process focused on more automated processing of small parts and piece picking. The primary goal was to be able to process a higher volume than would be possible with manual labor alone. René Wolters, Managing Director at KNAPP Benelux: “That was truly the start of greater value creation.”

Six years after the first major automation initiative, a second project was launched. The goal of this project was to enable Mediq to serve its customers in an even more targeted manner. This includes, among other things, delivering items directly to residents in healthcare facilities while simultaneously delivering to patients at home in a manner strongly reminiscent of B2C service. Jeroen de Lange, Supply Chain Director at Mediq: “Our way of working has really changed dramatically since the automation initiative. Whereas we previously served hospitals and healthcare facilities with pallets and roll containers based on manual operations in the warehouse—sometimes using as many as twenty forklifts per shift—we now handle this using a goods-to-man system from KNAPP. A direct-to-patient model has emerged based on full-case picking. In this process, a healthcare professional orders products, and we sort them by department or deliver them directly to the patient’s home. The invoice is then sent to the health insurer. These are orders that span two or three lines and contain just a few items.”

More scalable and flexible

As part of the second round of automation, the KNAPP Evo Shuttle was installed, among other things. It serves as the linchpin in evolving processes where automation is increasingly replacing manual tasks. De Lange: “That’s not a luxury, but a necessity. A system is less prone to errors, scalable, and makes us less dependent on temporary workers in an industry where employees are scarce. Moreover, during weeks that include holidays, it’s easier to catch up with automation. Our processes are scalable and more flexible.”

Close collaboration between the partners formed the foundation for both the first wave of automation in 2017–2018 and the second in 2023–2024. De Lange: “For us, these are major transformation projects that affect more than just order picking and wholesale. After all, we’re also a company with a network of nurses; we maintain equipment and operate our own pharmacy. Quality is our top priority in everything we do. As a value chain tech partner, KNAPP plays an enormously important role. Together, we’ve taken a major step toward maturity; value has been created, and we’re operating at lower costs. At the same time, efficiency has increased, the operation is scalable, and we’re able to work with a high degree of precision.”

Picking at the department level

According to the Supply Chain Director, the two-step automation process is exciting for both Mediq and KNAPP. “By that I mean that at a certain point, there’s more to it than just installing additional equipment. The complexity increases, software requires updates, and we wanted to be able to pick items at the department and resident levels. That was new to us, but it’s certainly not standard practice for a supplier either. Together, we figured out what the pallets needed to look like. The fact that this adjustment led to challenges during the testing and go-live phases is to be expected. We therefore went live cautiously, but it didn’t cause any problems anywhere.” KNAPP manages the software—from the PLC to the WCS itself—and also develops the integrations. Wolters: “This offers security benefits, for example, because no third-party interfaces are required. In addition, we have a broad portfolio, which allows us to tailor technology precisely to our customers” processes.“ Creating value is a recurring theme in the collaboration between Mediq and KNAPP. De Lange: ”Of course, that also has to do with my role: ensuring the efficiency of our company. This includes looking at supply chain costs as a percentage of sales. That needs to improve a little bit every year. Growth is necessary to achieve that. Here in Bleiswijk, there’s room to grow, thanks in part to the current automation.” During the rollout of the second phase, additional attention was also paid to employee ergonomics. The Evo Shuttle system delivers goods exactly at the desired height for operators.

‘It’s about patients, not bags of chips’

Still, according to De Lange, there is one aspect even more important than efficiency, and that is taking the burden off the customer. “Customer impact—such as a system outage—is something I absolutely want to avoid. For us, it’s about serving patients, not delivering bags of chips. So everything has to be just right, and the reliability of the KNAPP system is absolutely crucial. Both we and our technology partner need to know where we fit into the chain and take that into account when setting it up.”