Pharma & cosmetics

High amounts of SKU’s means complex orderpicking

Both the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry are characterized by extensive product ranges with a lot of depth and width. The supply chain aims at suppling stores, supporting product introductions and, particularly in cosmetics, accommodating special peaks (time for presents!). Errors during the picking process must be avoided at all times. Products can be fragile; especially liquids create extra challenges for the logistics system.

Pharmaceutical products have a shorter shelf life, need temperature controlled environments or require other special storage or shipment measures such as systematic quality controls. Traceability and identification are critical in this industry; companies often work with state-of-the-art WMS systems to maintain optimum control of the numerous SKUs.

In these sectors you will see very modern orderpicking systems, which combine high output with low error rates and a high storage density. Shuttle systems and storage machines are combined with scanning stations or labelling systems. Products are handled with complex transportation or sorting systems.