This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Package Handling
DCS’s design and engineering team has more than 40 years of experience creating unique parcel handling systems for diverse customer applications. With installations including semi-automated handling in small city distribution centers and fully automated, integrated hubs with advanced conveyor and sorter equipment, DCS routinely thinks outside the box.
E-Commerce and Multi-Channel Fulfillment
DCS designs and implements end-to-end warehouse automation solutions for e-commerce and multi-channel retailers that address numerous workflow challenges. This includes solutions for receiving, putaway, storage, replenishment, order fulfillment, picking, packing, sortation, and outbound shipping. Our custom integrated warehouse, distribution, and fulfillment systems draw from a deep pool of conventional, semi-automated, and automated material handling technologies.
Various Distribution Applications
Whether an operation is considering the construction of a new distribution or fulfillment center, or a retrofit or expansion of an existing facility, it’s important to create a solution that fits the overarching supply chain strategy. DCS has four decades of experience designing and integrating comprehensive, end-to-end material handling solutions that meet a multitude of operational goals. Whether conventional, semi-automated, or fully automated, DCS can help your organization implement a custom solution that meets its goals while maximizing return on investment (ROI).
Supply Chain Consulting
The DCS Supply Chain Consulting team offers a range of services to help your operations address the challenges it faces. Working in partnership with you, DCS consultants analyze your business data- existing workforce, workflow processes, inventory, order data, operations, and more- to determine a strategy that addresses your unique needs. Whether you need an operations assessment, process improvement recommendations, or distribution design services, DCS consultants will help guide you to the material handling system or operational solution that best meets your current and future needs, as well as your budget.
Customer Support
Keeping your warehouse operations and material handling systems running smoothly and at the peak of productivity are the goals of DCS’ Customer Service Team. By partnering with DCS, your warehouse automation solution is supported from commissioning to end of life. You’ll receive comprehensive in-house training of your personnel, including specialized training of your designated internal system expert. Plus, DCS offers a complete package of spare parts and expert system troubleshooting support from qualified engineers dedicated to your installation.
System Design & Integration
DCS offers a broad range of material handling equipment and automated system design, installation, and integration services for a multitude of projects. These include retrofits, expansions, upgrades, and more. While every project is unique, our system design and execution processes are the same, encompassing meticulous attention to detail, frequent communication, and a dedicated partnership with our clients.
Life Science & Healthcare
Pharmaceutical, healthcare, and life science companies face mounting pressure from evolving regulatory requirements, rising fulfillment costs, and intensifying accuracy demands. In this environment, automation isn’t optional—it’s essential. Designed Conveyor Systems (DCS) helps distributors of these critical products stay compliant and competitive.
Pet Food
Pet food distribution operations are anything but standard. From bulky kibble bags to delicate fish tanks, stock keeping unit (SKU) complexity and fulfillment pressure are always on the rise. Designed Conveyor Systems (DCS) partners with leading pet retailers to design and engineer automation, software, and material handling systems that keep operations agile, accurate, and ready for what’s next.
Home Improvement
When your distribution center handles everything from hammers to hot tubs, operational complexity isn’t a challenge—it’s your daily reality. Home improvement retailers face intense pressure to meet rising consumer expectations across multiple channels—from in-store pickups to last-mile delivery. At Designed Conveyor Systems (DCS), we specialize in engineering material handling and automation solutions that help home improvement distribution centers keep pace, reduce cost, and drive accuracy at scale.
Sporting Goods
Navigating the unique demands of the sporting goods retail industry requires a distribution strategy that’s both agile and precise. From handling seasonal surges to managing a diverse range of products—from bulky equipment to small accessories—your warehouse operations are the key to a seamless customer experience. Our expertise helps sporting goods retailers streamline their distribution warehouses, improving order accuracy, boosting productivity, and ensuring your team can efficiently move products from the receiving dock to the final customer, no matter the season.
Footwear
In the fast-paced world of footwear retail requires a distribution strategy that can handle a vast array of styles, sizes, and seasonal trends with precision and speed. From managing a high volume of SKUs to ensuring accurate order fulfillment and returns processing, your distribution center is the engine that drives customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Our expertise helps footwear retailers streamline their distribution centers, improving inventory management, accelerating order processing, and ensuring your team can efficiently move products from the receiving dock to the final customer, no matter the season.
Wholesale & Industrial Distribution
Designed Conveyor Systems (DCS) partners with wholesale, industrial, and electronics distributors to design efficient, optimized fulfillment solutions. Every operation DCS designs streamlines end-to-end functional processes—from inbound receiving and putaway to picking, packing, and shipping. Designed Conveyor Systems (DCS) partners with wholesale, industrial, and electronics distributors to design efficient, optimized fulfillment solutions. Every operation DCS designs streamlines end-to-end functional processes—from inbound receiving and putaway to picking, packing, and shipping.
About Us
Designed Conveyor Systems (DCS) has 40 years of experience serving major clients in multiple industries by providing material handling, full-scale warehouse operations, and conveyor design solutions that are custom crafted for their needs. DCS does not sell ready-made conveyor systems but builds relationships that empower collaboration to craft custom warehouse designs together. DCS utilizes consulting, engineering design, project management, installation services, and client support to ensure our customers can keep their promises to deliver on time.
Projects
With more than 40 years of experience providing automated system design, installation, and integration services, DCS has created solutions for companies throughout the United States in a broad range of industries and markets. We’ve completed more than 1500 projects ranging from greenfield facilities with completely new systems to expansions and retrofits of existing operations.
Upcoming Events
Designed Conveyor Systems values building strong relationships with our clients. Join us at our upcoming events to collaborate and discover how we can design a custom warehouse solution tailored to your unique needs.
Is Now the Time to Automate Your Conventional Handling Process? Ask a Consultant
Is Now the Time to Automate Your Conventional Handling Process? Ask a Consultant
The challenges facing warehouse, distribution, and fulfillment operations since the onset of the pandemic have been well documented. They also don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. With rising wages and labor shortages, conventional operations whose employees (the ones who show up, that is) fill orders manually as they follow paper pick lists are increasingly considering automation.
The material handling equipment suppliers marketing these solutions promise major efficiency and productivity improvements with the same headcount – an appealing argument. But for a conventional facility, the leap into automation is an enormous (not to mention costly) one. That’s why it’s a good idea to engage an independent, unbiased third-party consultant to help assess the current operation before jumping headlong into an automated solution.
The ideal warehouse automation consultant is one who can provide both an operational assessment, as well as collaborate on developing a strategy for both short- and long-term equipment, software, and automation investments. Additionally, it is often most beneficial to engage a consultant who is unaffiliated with a specific brand of software or material handling equipment supplier, and therefore able to propose the optimal solution from a variety of sources.
The first thing a warehouse automation consultant can do to help determine if an investment in automation is the right move for a conventional operation is to perform a process analysis. This involves an examination of the current foundational processes used within the operation to handle inventory, from inbound receiving, to putway, to picking and replenishment, to packing, and finally to outbound shipping. The analysis includes documenting the number of times an item is handled as it passes through each workflow and comparing these results to industry benchmarking standards for best practices in each functional area.
The warehouse automation consultant will also examine how the inventory handling processes are impacted by any inventory or order management software that may be currently in use. Some conventional operations manage inventory through spreadsheets; others may have a warehouse management system (WMS) whose software was written specifically for the operation or purchased off-the-shelf.
Often, if any software is in use, it is typically outdated or limited in functionality. That is, the capabilities of the existing software (and existing processes it directs) have been outpaced by the operation’s changing business requirements. That will prompt the warehouse automation consultant to perform a gap analysis. This evaluation determines whether the current software and processes meet the current business objectives. Quite often, the process has evolved to adapt to the software’s limitations, adding handling steps that waste time and add no value.
The result is that, in many cases, a conventional operation considering a move to automation will actually benefit significantly from first investing in new software that can be configured to match a new handling process. To determine how much of a benefit, the consultant can help to quantify the degree of process improvements delivered by a software implementation.
For manual operations, today’s modern software solutions can often deliver anywhere from a 15% to a 25% improvement in productivity and output capability by eliminating unnecessary handling steps. They are also more scalable, enabling them to support an operation as its business needs change and grow. Additionally, adding or updating to a new software system will better position an operation to more quickly implement and better leverage automated equipment moving forward.
The warehouse automation consultant can also help the operation evaluate different software providers. Working together, the operation and consultant can select the software solution can be optimized to best meet both current and anticipated future needs – including any investments in automated equipment.
Looking for more ideas on how to improve your facility’s operational performance? To learn more about working with DCS, connect with us.
Author
Mark Kidwell, Director of Supply Chain Consulting, markk@designedconveyor.com
With over 35 years in the material handling industry, Mark Kidwell provides valuable solutions for our clients regarding operations and process improvement, labor efficiency, DC design, and inventory management consultation.