Smith Drug Company Pharmaceutical distribution
The right IT prescription
Manufacturing & Logistics IT spoke with Randy McConnell, director of information systems at Smith Drug Company in the US, about how the company’s IT infrastructure helps to facilitate a number of business and operational benefits; including fast and accurate order picking, and speed of delivery to its 1000-plus independent pharmacy customers.
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eventy-five years ago, pharmacist James M. Smith, Sr. founded Smith Drug Store in the US, which grew to 16 successful South Eastern pharmacies. In 1944,
Smith established Smith Drug Company after divesting his interest in the pharmacies he had founded from 1925 through the late 1930s. Jim Smith, Jr.’s interest in both pharmacy and technology led him to create several companies based on the pharmacy industry, including QS/1 Data Systems and Smith Data Processing. The family of products continues to grow under the umbrella of the J M Smith Corporation.
Today, the J M Smith Corporation is South Carolina’s 6th largest privately held company. Smith Drug Company serves over 1000 pharmacies in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Lousiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Texas. With an average annual growth rate of over 35 per
MANUFACTURING &LOGISTICS
IT October 2011
cent, Smith Drug comments that it is passionate about wanting to meet and exceed customer expectations.
Next-morning delivery
In its main distribution centre in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Smith Drug employs around 200 members of staff. Most are active in the
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one in the morning and the other in the evening. Most of the orders arrive at the Spartanburg distribution centre between 5 and 7 PM Eastern Time, and goods are usually delivered via one of the three sites to Smith Drug’s independent pharmacy store customers by the next morning.
With regard to the company’s IT estate, Smith Drug’s field service staff rely on Motorola
With Voice-directed distribution, we’ve reached a whole new level of accuracy and accountability. For example, initially, we had only one case that got on the wrong truck, and that’s out of 7000 cases a day. You can’t beat that.”
– Randy McConnell, Smith Drug Company.
warehouse, with other personnel situated in the adjoining offices. Each of the company’s two regional warehouses – in Valdosta, Georgia and in Paragould, Arkansas – employs a total workforce of around 100. The three locations each run a two-shift operation;
4090 handheld computers to scan packages and capture signatures at the point of delivery when transporting goods to the pharmacy stores. These handhelds are also used to transfer data wirelessly back to the DCs in real time. Some 15 members of staff
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