Process Improvement and Physical Automation Selection for a Healthcare Warehouse: The Case of VGR

Abstract

This master’s thesis investigates improvements in manual warehouse operations and physical automation selection for the Västra Götalandsregionen (VGR) healthcare distribution center. The current manual warehouse faces operational challenges, including low inventory level accuracy. To address the issues, the study highlights the importance of a structured, four-phase framework consisting of Diagnose, Improvement in Manual Setting, Performance Gap Assessment and Technology Matching stages. The diagnostic stage utilizes Material Flow Mapping (MFM) to evaluate the baseline operations. The thesis proposes thirteen process improvements in manual operations that can successfully increase the performance indicators. However, because manual changes alone cannot satisfy long-term storage density mandates or high-accuracy requirements, a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) framework was used and developed to evaluate physical automation alternatives.