Teva CFS Book English

24 T he need for a large warehouse in Kfar Saba was evident already in the early 2000s, with an expansion of the plant’s activity. Throughout the years, the debate whether to build an automatic warehouse or a standard warehouse continued, and eventually in 2007 it was decided to “go for it, big time”. The decision was made to build an automatic warehouse with a capacity for 6,500 pallets (compared to only 1000 pallets in the old warehouse). Construction of the new warehouse began and there was much excitement... The warehouse adapts itself to the new millennium Designing the warehouse took into consideration numerous parameters including: giving flexibility to the plant to plan for 5 work days of production and packaging, storage in the highest quality conditions, and inventory control using state of the art tools. In order to operate the warehouse and manage inventory, the MES software was selected, which previously proved itself at the OSD Plant in Jerusalem. As a result of introducing a new information system that replaced the TLM - the system used by the warehouse for decades, there was a need to re-characterize all the processes and adapt them to the new millennium. Thus, a designated team at IT was established for this, headed by Mike Ray, who for months, together with the people in the department, defined and characterized the various processes. Each process was broken down and the right way to work was defined. In fact, setting up the automatic warehouse was much more than a technical process. It was a serious organizational change that pushed the plant ahead. The Spaniards are coming! The Spanish company Mecalux was selected to build the warehouse. Mecalux was very experienced in building automatic warehouses around the world, including for the pharmaceutical industry. When construction began, 6 workers came from Spain and stayed in Israel for many months to build and set up the warehouse. Quick retrieval The warehouse is comprised of two main parts: the high shelving area (“the pit”), which is 27 meters high, and the operational area, which encompasses around 600 m. The warehouse is divided into 4 passages. For each passage, a crane leads the pallets from the conveyors to the shelves, and back. The crane moves at a speed of 180 meters per minute, along with a conveyor that moves 20 meters per minute. This means that a pallet can be retrieved at a record time of a minute and a half! The plant’s showcase The degree to which the plant in Kfar Saba was proud of its state of the art automatic warehouse is evident in the fact that a new visitors gallery was incorporated into its construction. The impressive visitor’s gallery overlooks the warehouse on one side through a huge glass wall, and the other side overlooks the operational area. Every visit at The warehouse gets automatized The automatic warehouse that was built in Kfar Saba in 2011 changed the way the site ran in virtually every aspect of production and packaging and led it securely into the new millennium. A crane operates in every passage, leading the pallets from the conveyors to the shelves, and back. The crane moves at a speed of 180 meters per minute, along with a conveyor that moves 20 meters per minute. This means that a pallet can be retrieved in a record time of a minute and a half!