MediReva Revalidatie: rental and stock management

THE CUSTOMER

MediReva Revalidatie is a specialized company within the MediReva group. The company’s activities are rental, sale and stock management of medical aids. From its head office and warehouse in Maastricht and additional warehouses in Helmond and Gronsveld, MediReva Revalidatie delivers services and materials to private persons, hospitals and health care institutions throughout the Netherlands.

THE CHALLENGE

At MediReva Revalidatie, thousands of orders are processed each week. The orders contain both consumable goods as well as rental material. This last group of goods returns to the warehouse after the rental period, where they are cleaned and/or disinfected, inspected, repaired if necessary and stored. The administrative follow-up and processing of all processes is done in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV back office package.

MediReva Revalidatie engaged Aucxis to eliminate as many manual operations as possible in the administrative processes concerning rental and stock management by integrating RFID technology. The goal is to achieve a higher efficiency, as well as a clear and accurate overview of all articles’ statuses.

The project contained two challenges for Aucxis:

• The selection of the most suitable tag for the application and the development of a compact WMS system that smoothly connects to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV back office package. The RFID tag must be flexible so that the patient using the material is not troubled by it. Moreover, the tag had to be heat and waterproof, as many materials are exposed to high temperatures during the cleaning process.
• The link to the WMS system was to be realized by means of a transparent communication layer via Microsoft Dynamics Services. This layer takes care of the processing, feedback and offline synchronization of the status of all orders of articles equipped with an RFID tag.

THE SOLUTION

Procedure

All required data of the item to be picked appear on the display: article, serial number, warehouse location. The items equipped with an RFID tag are scanned one by one and checked on their serial number so that no mistakes are possible. At the end of the picking, the order is put out in the transport zone. Another scanning is executed upon delivery at the customer.

All process steps are linked back in real time to the back-office system so that the responsible workers immediately know in which status an order finds itself. Also the return process of the service material is done using RFID; they are collected, cleaned and put back in the warehouse using a so-called return order.

Furthermore, all employees received an RFID pass which enables to register who executes which action.

Material and software

• Aucxis selected a laundry tag meeting all requirements regarding flexibility and durability. The tags are programmed with unique information for each article.
• To scan the articles, Aucxis recommended the Nordic ID Medea, which is a future-oriented handheld allowing scanning via 3G.
• Aucxis developed a WMS package that offers a visually managed, intuitive registration for picking, transport, delivery, return, cleaning, control and reparation.