Solutions for clean and safe distribution operations
Businesses everywhere are taking measures to keep their employees safe and operations moving during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As an independent integrator, Bastian Solutions has a variety of tools and technologies that will blend into your existing operations and allow it to keep operating at peak performance. Solutions include cleaning and sanitizing, as well as improving person-to-person spacing and contact tracing ability. These tools aim to create a safer working environment that will help slow the spread of illnesses through airborne and surface-touch – COVID-19, influenza or viral gastroenteritis, for example.
While guidelines are always being updated, the CDC and OSHA in general recommends the following preventative steps:
- Frequent hand washing
- Social distancing of no less than 6 feet
- Frequent cleaning and disinfecting
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
- Policies and procedures that promote a safe environment which includes clear classification of workers, exposure procedures and flexible worksites
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Keeping your employees safe and operations uninhibited is key to maintaining workflows but with challenges relating to health safety, it can be cumbersome. In addition to planning and identifying appropriate steps for your business, execution challenges can include time and planning for:
- Cleaning high touch areas
- Managing personnel shifts
- Having a large warehouse footprint and robust product movement
- Executing contact tracing
- Appropriate ventilation systems
- Daily health checks
- Time for sanitization and, at times, a waiting period before re-entering
Air Sanitization
Air sanitization aims to disinfect the air; reducing germs that are coughed, sneezed or breathed out, for example. Air systems generally use ionization and UV to disinfect the air. This process kills 99.99% of airborne pathogens.
Conveyor Cleaning
Sanitizing conveyors allows you to pass in-line totes or cartons through a sanitizing tunnel. While passing through, a fine mist sanitizer is sprayed and then either air or heat dried. This system can be integrated for receiving, processing, shipping or storing and can be custom sized to handle different width products.
Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) can help address areas that are harder to reach or for facilities that have a large footprint.
- 360-degree reach
- Autonomous and recharges without intervention
- Disinfects 99.99%
Mobile UVC Robots
Mobile UVC disinfection is an option for areas that need fast disinfection. They are high-powered units that use UV light to disinfect in minutes.
Mobile Misting Robots
Using a misting spray instead of UV, mobile misting sanitizing robots can disinfect a 100,000 square-foot facility in 1.5 hours, eliminating 99.99% of viruses and bacteria (including COVID-19). Disinfected rooms can be re-entered in as little as 2 hours.
Maintaining a Safe Distance
Traditionally, warehouse facilities and distribution centers include workflows that require order fulfillment pickers to travel up and down aisles moving product between picking locations. To encourage social distancing practices, you’ll want to minimize that travel, which can be up to 40 to 50 percent of a traditional picking function.
Goods-to-person (GTP) systems include individual workstations that naturally create a socially distant environment, reducing navigation throughout the distribution center and simplifying contact tracing. The goal of GTP is a more efficient and streamlined process that is scalable based on your business needs.
Creating a Safer Facility Layout
Incorporating social distancing and safer precautions can be challenging but consulting services can help identify opportunities, analyze current operations, and create proposals of the most effective operation with the highest return on investment.
In review of operations, planning for new or existing facilities, you may consider support for:
- Employee shift change schedules and workflow optimization
- Technology implementation
- Contact tracing through automation workstations
- Social distancing layout alterations
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