Overcoming Automation Obstacles During COVID-19: A Case Study about the implementation of Swisslog AutoStore at Radwell International in Arlington, TX

THE CUSTOMER

Radwell International supports its customers with a broad range of new and used industrial products including industrial automation, MRO, pneumatic, motion, electronic, hydraulic, HVAC and electrical control equipment for plant floors and facilities. The company also provides component-level repair for all industrial electronic and electrical equipment, and buys new and used surplus for resale.

Radwell has major distribution hubs in New Jersey and the U.K., which support the bulk of product shipments and also include production facilities for repair. The hubs are supported by a network of satellite facilities that focus on repairs and localized sales. In early 2020, Radwell began construction on its newest automated distribution center. Radwell would locate this AutoStore in its 86,000-square-foot Arlington, Texas, branch.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to represent Radwell International at the first Swisslog Autostore User Conference just outside of Chicago, Illinois. Radwell is one of a rapidly growing network of Autostore users. Many of which are on the leading edge of robotic automated storage and retrieval systems.  Our Autostore has been operational now almost 2 years and boasts 34 robots, 50,000 bins and 9 stations.

From the conference I had 3 major takeaways that I would like to share with others that are interested in the Autostore or automated systems in general.

Small to mid-sized companies face many challenges in today’s business climate. In the “Amazon” era, customer

expectations continue to rise, presenting a great need for businesses to continually improve processes and methods. This constant need for improvement is all in the hopes of mitigating challenges and turning them into wins throughout the customer buying cycle. 

In terms of shipping customer products, the struggle can be very real. There are many things to consider and often overcome. A manual shipping system requires accessible inventory and humans to execute every aspect of bringing that inventory to customers. Inventory must be chosen based on a customer’s order and picked so that it can be packaged. The item must then be sent through a series of checks before it is packaged in the correct sized box and weighed for shipping. After the item is labeled, the correct shipping method must be chosen. The prepared shipment must be brought to the end of the shipping cycle for sorting prior to carrier pickup. There is a lot of movement in a manual system and humans must execute the steps within a manual system.

Brian Janusz is an interesting person. He has been central to the redesign and remodel of Radwell International's new headquarters building in Willingboro, NJ. When he wasn't hard at work on managing remodeling and material handling systems,  he has been working with other Radwell locations on expansion plans. Brian is busy: moving frequently and quickly through the 311,000 square foot Radwell headquarters building, easily gravitating from project to project with ease. We caught up with him recently to get a glimspe into his job at Radwell International. We had to walk really quickly to catch up.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be at Radwell International.

My education background is in Mechanical Engineering and I graduated from Virginia Tech. My first job out of college was working as a Project Engineer for Bowen Engineering, a great construction company that builds and works on water treatment plants, waste water treatment plants and large utilities. It started off as a summer internship that turned into a full time job. I learned so much from the experience, mostly from the amazing people I worked with. They taught me about project management, people management and construction. It was a difficult job to leave because there was still so much to learn. That experience has helped me enormously, in what I do at Radwell International.

How I came to Radwell: During my freshman year at college I emailed Brian Radwell looking for a summer job. He directed me to Steve Wallace and I got a position helping out in production. That first summer I did anything and everything that was needed. I delivered manual recs, organized the order shelves, cleaned units, worked with speed line testing and approving parts for orders, picked in the warehouse and just generally learned

If you've been keeping up with the remodel of Radwell International's new headquarters building in Willingboro, NJ, then you know about the installation of our Swisslog Autostore. To read more about this revolutionary system, give Todd Radwell's blog post a read here. It was truly fascinating to watch the system being built from the ground up.