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.
Lifecycle Services
Stop reactive repairs. Lifecycle Services provides expert preventive maintenance and 24/7 technical support to protect your automation and MHE availability.
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.
DCS Transitions Graco to New, Greenfield DC Equipped with Automated Fulfillment Technologies
DCS Transitions Graco to New, Greenfield DC Equipped with Automated Fulfillment Technologies
Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG), a leading manufacturer of fluid handling equipment, engaged Designed Conveyor Systems (DCS) to design a new automated fulfillment system and outfit the company’s new, 500,000-square-foot greenfield Worldwide Distribution Center (DC) with state-of-the-art automation technologies. As a brand-independent system integrator, DCS engineered a design comprised of best fit solutions from leading automation suppliers. They included KNAPP, Geek+ and Brock Solutions. The entire project was completed on schedule in 24 months, with go-live on May 13, 2024.
The Challenge
In early 2020, Graco’s operations leaders began to take a closer look at their existing distribution operation. For 10 years, Graco housed more than 40,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) in the 227,000-square-foot facility. Graco — a leading manufacturer of fluid handling equipment — used the building to ship orders to domestic and international distributors, North American retailers, and as drop shipments to end customers.
Leased Facility Outgrown
With global demand for Graco’s products forecasted to grow significantly, operations leaders identified numerous limitations with the building and its material handling equipment, explained Jeff Weber, Distribution Operations Manager.
“We didn’t own the building,” Weber noted. “That meant a badly needed expansion in square footage to help the us achieve our growth projections wasn’t viable.”
Equipment Modernization Needed
Further, the equipment Graco used to handle over 20,000 small parts SKUs — a crane-based, mini-load automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) storing 27,000 totes across five aisles — was approaching the end of its lifespan, Weber added. As a single point of failure, the aging AS/RS’s crane had become a source of increasingly frequent unplanned downtime.
Additionally, the operation’s consolidation and pack-out processes were co-located in the same area. Attempting to complete both tasks had become a bottleneck, routinely requiring overtime to meet shipping commitments.
“A multi-line order couldn’t be completed until all SKUs met up at the packing area,” Weber explained. “With different picks arriving at different times, associates were spending way more time hunting through a quickly growing pile of picks than packing. It was stressful and frustrating.”
DCS Designed, Commissioned Automated Greenfield DC
Graco’s team decided to build and equip a new, automated 500,000-square-foot Worldwide Distribution Center in Dayton, Minnesota. After reviewing design proposals from multiple vendors, Graco engaged Designed Conveyor Systems (DCS). The company tasked DCS to design, install, and commission a new, state-of-the-art automated fulfillment system in February 2022.
The Solution
The DCS design team’s winning proposal resulted from months of collaboration with Graco’s operations leaders and with automation suppliers.
“Because DCS takes a brand-agnostic approach, they showed us they could design an automated system that did exactly what we needed it to do using equipment from leading manufacturers,” explained Weber.
KNAPP Goods-to-Person AS/RS
DCS recommended a KNAPP OSR Shuttle Evo goods-to-person AS/RS. The system has a significant amount of redundancy built into it. This addressed a major concern from Graco’s experience with the mini-load cranes. The system holds the majority of the facility’s SKUs, inducted via one of six workstations. Each of the system’s 25 levels is served by a dedicated robotic shuttle. The shuttles store and retrieve totes of product. Two automated lifts on the discharge end of the system (one per aisle) interface with the shuttles to exchange totes.
When an SKU stored in the KNAPP system is needed, a shuttle retrieves its tote and carries it to a lift. The lift lowers the tote to a conveyor that routes it to one of six goods-to-person picking workstations. When a pick is complete, the tote is conveyed back to a lift. The lift then raises the tote back up to its storage level where a shuttle transports it back to storage.
Conventional Material Handling Solutions Deployed Too
The new facility houses inventory that is too large or heavy for the KNAPP system in conventional pallet rack or in bay locations. Likewise, frequently picked, fast moving items reside in several zones of carton flow with pick-to-light modules.
The order consolidation process changed significantly, said Weber. “From the perspectives of ergonomics and safety, our operations team felt strongly that manual order consolidation was a no-go for our associates. With much of the overall fulfillment process being automated, we wanted to automate order consolidation as well,” he emphasized.
Geek+ AMRs Support Order Consolidation Directed by Brock Solutions’ WCS
DCS worked with autonomous mobile robot (AMR) supplier Geek+ to deploy its PopPick order consolidation system along with Brock Solutions’ warehouse control system (WCS). The WCS identifies and routes totes from multi-tote orders to a cordoned-off area of Geek+ AMRs and multi-shelved racks. There, an inserter/extractor within the PopPick station transfers totes from the inbound conveyor onto staging/storage racks. When the transfers are complete, a Geek+ AMR tunnels under the rack and moves it to a dense staging area.
Once all the individual totes required for a single order have arrived in the consolidation zone, the Brock WCS commands the Geek+ system to bring forward staged racks associated with the order. The PopPick system automatically extracts and sequences the totes closely together for routing via conveyor to a pack-out area with 12 workstations. Order release timing matches pack station availability to avoid excessive pack sorter recirculation. The Brock WCS also monitors and routes empty totes back to the Geek+ area on the same conveyor line for buffering.
“The Geek+ PopPick consolidation and tote buffering zone works well,” said Weber. “The implementation had its challenges, but ultimately we have an entirely new workflow that’s eliminated a job that our associates dreaded.”
Light-Directed Packing
To help associates even more quickly identify orders, every pack workstation has light guided decant and picking systems. These illuminate a specific product or location within a multi-SKU tote, also improving accuracy.
Connecting all of the automation is nearly one-and-a-half continuous miles of motor driven roller (MDR) carton conveyor. Further, the Brock WCS interfaces with the automated systems and Graco’s existing warehouse management system (WMS) to direct all workflows.
The Results
The entire project was completed on schedule in 24 months. Graco credits DCS’s collaborative working approach, extensive planning, project management, and close communication with the new facility’s architect and general contractor, for meeting the timeline, said Weber.
To give Graco’s team hands-on experience with the new workflows and processes, DCS trained operations personnel on the new automated system when storage totes and SKUs were inducted, six weeks before go-live in May 2024.
“DCS truly was an end-to-end automation project manager,” Weber added. “The DCS team made sure all the equipment was here on time and coordinated all of our automation vendors — all the way from commissioning, to install, to startup. They have been very helpful and supportive through this entire project.”
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About DCS
Headquartered in Franklin, Tenn., 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.
About Graco Inc.
Graco Inc. supplies technology and expertise for the management of fluids and coatings in both industrial and commercial applications. It designs, manufactures, and markets systems and equipment to move, measure, control, dispense, and spray fluid and powder materials. A recognized leader in its specialties, Minneapolis-based Graco serves customers around the world in the manufacturing, processing, construction, and maintenance industries.