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.
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.

Trade Show Attendees Motivated to Solve Three Operational Challenges

DCS exhibited in several trade shows this year and attended many different conferences, including Parcel Forum, Pack Expo, CSCMP EDGE, and the MHI Annual Conference. The largest, of course, was ProMat 2023 which drew record attendance to its exhibits and educational conference at the end of March in Chicago. There, DCS debuted our new DATUM warehouse execution system (WES). This new, host software- and system-agnostic WES was a big draw for attendees at all the shows we participated in. They packed our exhibit to check out DATUM’s scalable, flexible, and reliable features.

 

While engaging with the WES, booth visitors also shared with our team the three operational challenges currently keeping them up at night. Interestingly, while the visitors to our exhibits represented a diverse range of company and facility sizes across a broad collection of industries, their issues were universal. These new warehouse operational challenges include:

 

  1. Continued inability to fully staff warehouse associate and material handler roles across all shifts.
  2. Ongoing difficulties associated with meeting the expectations of e-commerce customers, including excessive inventory volumes, shopper expectations for fast and free shipping, intense competition, and handling returns.
  3. Capacity limitations and lack of available space in existing facilities, compounded by an exceptionally tight real estate market.

 

These concerns match the supply chain challenges we’ve been observing — and solving for customers — throughout the past few years. Here’s how DCS has been helping operations managers get some well-deserved sleep.

 

Evaluating the Options for Improving Productivity Without Adding Headcount

 

With several years of hiring and retention struggles behind them, most operations have begun to look for ways to improve productivity without adding headcount. To help companies achieve this goal, DCS’ Supply Chain Consulting team analyzes an operation’s business data — including current workforce allocation, workflow processes, inventory velocities, order data, and more — to determine the optimal strategy to meet its unique needs.

 

Sometimes, the most expedient way to gain efficiency and throughput without adding more headcount is to implement one or more process improvements that streamline workflows and eliminate bottlenecks. Other times, adding automated solutions to a conventional, manual handling operation to handle the most tedious tasks while reallocating staffers to higher value jobs is the best approach.

 

Either way, DCS partners with each of our customers to provide comprehensive, end-to-end solutions tailored to match their business and operational goals. Because we are an independent, brand- and technology-agnostic systems integrator, DCS designs and engineers solutions that leverage a mix of equipment and automation from multiple original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

 

Being independent allows us to always create the best possible solution for each aspect of a customer’s material handling and order fulfillment process. And, as evidenced at the shows we participated in, there are literally hundreds of different technologies and equipment solutions available. Not only can we help customers wade through their options to pinpoint the optimal choice, but with DATUM, we can now ensure that each of those systems works together seamlessly to streamline an operation.

 

E-Commerce Slowdown Provides Ideal Time to Address Operational Struggles

 

By all accounts, the massive uptick in demand for e-commerce that occurred during the pandemic has eased back to pre-COVID levels. Yet those levels were still pretty significant in 2019.

 

That means operations are still looking for better ways to handle the daily challenges of picking, packing, and shipping thousands of one- and two-line item orders while meeting customers’ expectations for fast, free shipping. They’re also coping with the need to stock a broad variety of inventory to accommodate shoppers’ shifting preferences and remain competitive in an intensely fierce battle for online consumer dollars. Plus, handling returns has become a huge challenge for many e-commerce and omni-channel operations.

 

The relative slowdown of e-commerce (compared to the past three years) is actually the perfect time for operations to address these challenges. With equipment lead times still being somewhat extended, it’s never too soon to start developing the automated solution that can help an e-commerce facility meet its service level agreements (SLAs) and productivity objectives. Now is a great time to pull in key operations personnel, evaluate the potential solutions, and work through project timeframes — particularly before the peak holiday shopping season kicks off.

 

Alternatives to Coping with Capacity Constraints

 

As major ports have worked through the backlog of inbound containers and routed those shipments to their destination warehouses, facilities have found themselves flooded with excess volumes of inventory. That’s causing tremendous capacity strains at many operations.

 

There are multiple ways to deal with an excess of inventory. Historically, companies might have leased additional square footage. However, available industrial space has become exceedingly scarce across the country.

 

The alternative is to find ways to maximize an existing operation’s space utilization. This can include reslotting, outsourcing part of (or all) fulfillment to a third-party logistics (3PL) solutions provider, or introducing automated storage and retrieval solutions (AS/RS) to increase storage density.

 

For operations already utilizing automation, investing in additional technologies to help increase capacity may be the optimal choice. In fact, at every show the DCS team had many conversations with attendees who were looking to build upon their existing systems to maximize their return on investment (ROI).

 

Simultaneously, however, these operations managers were looking for solutions partners who could help ensure their facilities would be able to continue operating during the upgrade process. Fortunately, DCS has extensive experience in managing projects just like this — from consulting to system design and integration, through compliance, go-live, and end-to-end customer support — to ensure minimal disruptions throughout a project.

 

Is your company facing any of these operational supply chain challenges? DCS can help you solve them with a custom engineered system that meets your needs. Connect with us.

 

Author: Abigail Milligan, Sales Executive, abigail@designedconveyor.com