Cardinal Health Canada Inc. will increase its nationwide distribution centre network to over a million square feet when it opens a new state-of-the-art robotics facility in the Greater Toronto Area later this year.

Cardinal Health Canada announced plans to open a new distribution center in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), expanding its distribution footprint to nine strategic locations to better meet the medical and surgical product demands of the Canadian healthcare system.

The 163,000-square-foot facility will integrate robotic technologies to deliver operational efficiencies as well as enhanced employee, customer, and supplier experiences. Working with autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) means that each employee stays within a specific zone in the facility and becomes an expert on the products located in that area, reducing physical labor while improving productivity. For customers, the AMR implementation will increase picking and packing accuracy.

The Concord center will integrate automated technologies developed by Locus Robotics to deliver operational efficiencies as well as enhanced employee, customer, and supplier experiences.

Working with autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) means each employee stays within a specific zone in the facility which the company states will reduce physical labor while improving productivity. The AMR implementation is planning to increase picking and packing accuracy.

“Beyond growing our already significant distribution footprint across Canada, this distribution center supports Cardinal Health’s market-leading just-in-time Stockless solution, which takes on the complexities of procurement, supply chain, warehousing, and transportation within hospitals, so they can focus on what hospitals do best: patient care,” Russell Schuster, Cardinal Health Canada’s president, said in the announcement.

About Cardinal Health Stockless Solution

Cardinal Health Stockless Solution is a supply chain management system designed to help healthcare providers reduce costs, streamline operations, and improve patient care. The solution works by eliminating the need for healthcare facilities to maintain large inventories of medical supplies and equipment on-site.

Here's how it works:

Inventory Management: Cardinal Health manages the inventory of medical supplies and equipment on behalf of the healthcare facility. This means that Cardinal Health is responsible for ordering, stocking, and maintaining the inventory levels of the products that the healthcare facility uses.

Electronic Ordering: The healthcare facility can order supplies and equipment electronically through a secure online ordering system. This system is integrated with the healthcare facility's electronic medical records (EMR) system, allowing for seamless communication between the two systems.

Just-in-Time Delivery: Cardinal Health delivers the medical supplies and equipment directly to the healthcare facility on a just-in-time basis. This means that the healthcare facility receives the products they need when they need them, without having to maintain a large inventory on-site.

Cost Savings: By eliminating the need to maintain a large inventory on-site, healthcare facilities can save money on storage and inventory management costs. Cardinal Health also leverages its buying power to negotiate lower prices for medical supplies and equipment, which can result in additional cost savings for healthcare providers.

Overall, the Cardinal Health Stockless Solution helps healthcare providers to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and focus on providing high-quality patient care.

The new GTA distribution center is estimated to be fully operational in late 2023 to early 2024. This will bolster Cardinal Health Canada’s distribution footprint in Ontario to 541,000 square feet and raise its national footprint to 1,120,000 square feet.

This is the third new distribution center for Cardinal Health’s Medical Segment to be announced within North America since April 2023.

The 163,000-square-foot distribution centre in Concord is to be fully operational in late 2023 to early 2024. This will bolster Cardinal Health Canada’s distribution footprint in Ontario to 541,000 square feet and raise its national footprint to 1,120,000 square feet.

It will be Cardinal's ninth regional distribution centre.

Headquartered in Vaughan, Cardinal Health's Canada division manufactures and distributes medical and surgical products across the country via eight distribution centres and one manufacturing facility.

It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cardinal Health, Inc., a global firm which distributes pharmaceuticals and distributes and manufactures medical and laboratory products.

Cardinal Health operates in over 30 countries and has approximately 46,500 employees globally.

This is the third new distribution centre for Cardinal Health’s medical segment to be announced within North America since April this year.

The previous two opened in Groveport and Grove City in central Ohio, located about 24 kilometres apart just south of Columbus.

Together, they are more than 782,000 square feet.

The Groveport location will also be equipped with Locus Robotics technology and an innovation lab which is designed to test new technologies and streamline fulfillment processes.

The at-Home Solutions distribution center in Grove City will act as a customer showcase location and it is the first Cardinal Health warehouse to feature AutoStore, an automated fulfillment technology from Swisslog.