
The installation’s impressive size and expansive range of capabilities is a far cry from its humble beginnings
Uprooting Benco Dental: a customized warehouse to speed up picking
The founder Ben Cohen put down roots in Pennsylvania in the 1930s and formally started Benco Dental in a modestly sized Wilkes-Barre Township office. Benco grew the business there for the next 30 years. In Wilkes-Barre, the enterprise was hampered by, among other things, limited and undersized pick locations, pockets of scattered secondary stock, and bins with inefficient replenishment.
“The most bang-for-your-buck happens [when companies] receive product, stick it in its primary location and pick it,” said a Benco spokesperson. “That’s the philosophy we took when we designed the new facility.” In its latest move, Benco swapped a 6,400 m² installation for over 14,900 m² just 11 km away in Pittston.
Bob Novak, Interlake Mecalux’s East Coast marketing manager, explained that he first got involved with Benco Dental after one of its lift truck distributors came to him for help designing Benco’s pick module in Fort Wayne. He noted that after IKMX’s involvement with the Indiana installation, Benco Dental commissioned the well-known Spanish warehouse solutions provider to install racks in its future installations.
As it often does, the evolution of this process started with Benco Dental’s conceptual drawings. After the sides volleyed their ideas back and forth, the concept was whittled down to a final design.
“We went in as the experts on pick modules and have worked with Benco ever since,” said Novak. “It worked out pretty well,” top Benco managers replied, reflecting on both Benco’s reenlistment of Interlake Mecalux and the six-week installation.
Today, more than 400 employees work out of the Pittston facility – not just in the distribution warehouse, but in the offices, classrooms and showrooms built into the structure’s design. “We have the biggest single place in the U.S., where dentists can come see all kinds of working operatories,” a spokesperson continued. Twenty-six office sets display the products and technologies Benco distributes.
Challenge and success
Relocating a company is a tough business, even if it only means moving you 11 km away. The Pittston installation rests in a never-occupied building within a storage park that was adapted by Mecalux according to Benco’s specifications.
Benco Dental’s team realized how tricky the several months preceding the move were going to be. It meant having to manually move 34,000 items one-by-one from old pick slots to new ones. “Maintaining customer satisfaction during the move was the biggest challenge,” Benco management explained, “We didn’t shut down for one day.”
Benco Dental reinvented
The design and size of Benco Dental’s installation ensures that it isn’t strained by constant restocking demands. Warehouse dimensions aside, the dental product distributor uses its space wisely by also building up and canvassing each square meter with efficient operations. Benco’s floor plan certainly fulfils all of its basic requirements, but it is the system’s bells and whistles that add a unique efficiency exclusive to that Pittston facility.
In addition to the improvements the racks inherently create on the premises, the expert innovations and specialized flourishes of the Pittston location optimize production. Mobilizing Mecalux’s knowledge into innovative solutions is what helped solidify Benco. “I approached Interlake Mecalux with a basic design in mind, they tweaked it, and we both added some great features,” said a key Benco manager.
Here are Pittston’s biggest customisations – and why they are necessary:
Pick module safety
How Interlake Mecalux worked with Benco Dental to ensure safety.
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