Warehousing Overview

Baxter Healthcare Pty Ltd services customers and home patients throughout Australia. From densely populated metropolitan areas, to rural and country areas through to the remotest and most locations in the continent – if a Baxter delivery is required there, Baxter has the logistical infrastructure to provide it in a timely and cost effective manner.

The bulk of Baxter’s deliveries are sterile fluids. These products are relatively heavy, generally used in substantial quantities, and are used in critical therapies. Quite often, these products are required urgently and to provide such availability, Baxter has established Distribution Centres throughout Australia.

Baxter performs enhanced delivery services including the complete management and replenishment of Baxter products to hospital wards, eliminating the customers need for warehousing.

The Northern Region is serviced by distribution centres in Brisbane and Townsville, the Eastern Region has a Replenishment Centre at Toongabbie and is serviced by a distribution centre in Sydney, the Southern Region is serviced by a distribution centre in Melbourne which also manages the Hobart HSA contract warehouse. The Western Region is serviced by distribution centres in Perth and Adelaide.

This Organisation is managed by the National Distribution Manager. The National Transport Manager co-ordinates the delivery process and strategic alliances nationally and Regional Distribution Managers manage this process within their areas to ensure that our customers have the most effective service available.

Orders can be received in many formats, including B2B electronic and are delivered the next day in metropolitan areas. Baxter has a fleet of dedicated delivery vehicles servicing the metropolitan areas and formed strategic alliances with quality transport companies for intrastate and interstate distribution. The quality of our distribution and delivery services are monitored and documented as the foundation for the continuous improvement of the performance of our employees, our systems and processes and our strategic partners.

All Distribution Centres operate a bar code based Radio Frequency Warehouse Management System that provides real time responsiveness and a high level of accuracy. Current order picking accuracy rates are averaging 99.97%.

Scanning bar codes with Baxter’s Radio Frequency Warehouse Management System

The volumes that are moved through the supply chain by Baxter Distribution are unprecedented in our industry. Each year we handle over 2,000 full sea container (teu) movements, ship 800,000 line items to customers that represents 45 million shipping units and over 160,000 orders.

To support this, we have over 26,000 square metres of warehouse space nationally that has a capacity of over 23,600 pallets supported by a staff of around 70 distribution team members. All operational team members are required to successfully complete the national (TAFE) Certificate III course in Warehousing and Distribution. Our staff not only have a high level of skill, but they have the knowledge and commitment to meeting our customers needs that is so important in our industry.

Distribution’s commitment to quality is proven by having every Distribution Centre individually assessed to ISO 9001 Quality Management standards, as well as complying with the Code of GMP requirements and the AS4187 standard for the handling of sterile products.