Schenker to build automated warehouse for Apohem

Apohem, an online pharmacy launched by Axfood, Novax and the e-commerce entrepreneurs behind LensOn, has selected DB Schenker’s automated warehouse solution.

Apohem chose the solution because it offers a more effective picking and packing process than in a standard shelf warehouse, says DB Schenker. It will also allow Apohem to scale up volumes based on the company’s expected growth.

DB Schenker’s automated warehouse management solution is ideally suited to Apohem, which has a wide range of products and the goal of delivering orders to customers in less than the time it would take them to get to a physical chemist.

Robots make the packing and picking process two to three times more efficient compared to traditional warehouse management, says the company.

The solution also allows Apohem customers to submit prescriptions for medication. After the prescriptions are checked by qualified staff, the medicines are dispatched to the customers.

“Automation is ideally suited to Apohem,” says Anders Holmberg, Head of Business Development & Solution Design at DB Schenker Sweden.

“They are a business with a large number of products and, in general, small orders that are extremely time-sensitive. Automation also puts us in a much better position to handle peaks in sales, which have become more common with all the e-commerce sales campaigns.”

Automation allows warehouse shelves to be used flexibly. This makes it possible to combine multiple customers under one roof and to mix automated and traditional pick and pack for individual customers that have both small and large products in their portfolios.

DB Schenker uses the Swisslog automated warehouse management solution at its Arlandastad logistics centre near Stockholm.

Automated warehouse management means that instead of staff picking from warehouse shelves, entire sections of the shelves move to the packing stations.

This increases productivity, saves floor space, minimises the risk of error, and makes it easier to increase capacity when demand is highest.