Fresenius Medical Care, the world’s leading provider of Renal Therapy products and services, relocated their North American medical device manufacturing to a new state-of the art 180,000sf facility in Concord, CA. The new facility provides a home for Manufacturing, R&D, and Distribution to support further advancement of dialysis products.
The plan started in 2009, when Fresenius partnered with Boston Industrial and Jones Lang Lasalle to develop a long-term Master Plan to meet the future business growth for the ‘over-crowded’ operation in Walnut Creek, CA. After finding the right site, Boston Industrial worked with FMC in the facility design of new efficient, lab, manufacturing and distribution operations.
The manufacturing operation promotes Lean initiatives throughout focusing on one-up assembly, integrated parts delivery systems, ergonomic workstations, and visual work queues and travel paths. The Distribution operation provides raw material storage, spare parts fulfillment, finished goods replenishment, and a cross-dock facility for their TruBlu logistics network. Spatial limitations required creative storage solutions, including a pallet mole system, VLMs, mobile racking, and VNA selective rack provided by Abel Womack. Particular attention was paid to the management and deployment of MEP services throughout, including DI/RO water management, quick-disconnect utility manifolds, advanced LED lighting, building management system for precision HVAC monitoring.
BIC continues its strong relationship with FMC with the redesign and expansion of their Spectra Laboratories business unit in eastern New Jersey.
On The Lookout
- Amazon continues to push the barriers of delivery, first with their Sunday delivery agreement with the Postal Service, and now with drone delivery. And while it may be costly and beyond the legality of air transportation, it is sending a message to its audience and competitors – rethink performance and think ‘outside the box’ to deliver to customers more rapidly.
In The Pipeline
- 47 Brands, distributors of Boston Strong Caps and other sporting gear, is getting stronger. In December, they will ‘go live” with their new WMS from Invata.
- In order to improve performance and reduce handling from Manufacturing to Distribution, BIC has been engaged by a leading candy manufacturer to simulate their current operations and test ‘best case’ improvements for new levels of automation.
