McGraw-Hill Company

McGraw-Hill is a leading producer of textbooks, tests, magazines, and educational materials.

McGraw-Hill is a leading producer of textbooks, tests, magazines, and related educational materials for kindergarten through high school grades. McGraw-Hill’s core value is to help create a smarter, better world. When it came time for a smarter way to handle 100,000 heavy textbooks a day, they turned to Wynright for help. After all, it starts with smarts.

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Challenge

McGraw-Hill wanted to convert a predominantly manual distribution process with an automated distribution system. The system also had to be flexible enough to handle the fluctuation between normal and peak operations; 60% of sales occur during the summer, when people are ramping up for the new school year.

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Solution

Daifuku Intralogistics America integrated a cost-conscious sortation system that used the same sliding shoe sorter for pick routing as well as shipping. Diverts on one side of the bi-directional sorter served the split-case module, while other cartons were directed down to shipping lanes on the opposite side of the sorter. An in-line scale was added to check actual weight with expected weight. If a carton was out of tolerance by three-tenths of a pound, it was diverted to a quality assurance lane to be checked.

Pallet building stations were added sorter down-lines to handle full case and batch orders. A pick and pass split case pick module was integrated to handle McGraw-Hill’s loose pick order requirements. The new system reduced labor costs and improved both productivity and accuracy.

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Outcome

McGraw-Hill was able to achieve their goals for the newly automated distribution center by reaching and maintaining a 99.5% accuracy rate while managing three times the volume with no increase in manpower. Continuing their commitment to customer service, McGraw-Hill’s orders were routinely shipped within the 24-hour target, and many often were shipped the same day. That’s the power of automation, and the value of advanced material handling systems by Daifuku Intralogistics America.