Medlines keeps our Operations and Manufacturing teams in the know, helping you connect with the broader organization.
Automation and opportunities
When she punched in at Medline for the first time 20 years ago, Angelica Chavez was a college student with a temporary warehouse job, not expecting to stay very long, not thinking it would lead her anywhere in particular. Today, she’s somewhere particular, all right: the director of operations at the B11 distribution center (DC) in Aurora, Colorado.
Fascinated by the impact she saw Medline making, she began to see the company not as a brief stop but as a place where employees like her were encouraged.
Chavez moved from team lead, supervisor and warehouse
From hourly order picker to director of operations,
introduced new automation— and new opportunities—to her team.
“There’s a tremendous sense of pride in what we’re able to do for our customers, and also in our teams,” Chavez said of Medline’s 24th AutoStore installation. “This is something that everybody is just really excited about.”
manager and spent time making improvements at sites around the country before taking the reins in Aurora—the realization of her goal to one day lead a DC herself.
A proponent for adding automation to get more done for customers with less physical toll on the team, Chavez was thrilled earlier this year to introduce AutoStore, the robotic storage and retrieval system.
With 96 robots, 38,000 bins, eight induction stations for loading products into the system and 10 picking workstations, AutoStore is helping the team meet B11’s recent 25 percent jump in volume due to customer growth.
“ Medline allows you to be a part of the change you want to see,” Chavez said. “A lot of our improvements started with hourly team members.”
“Our picks per hour are now up from about 60 per employee to 200-240,” Chavez said. “Our on-time delivery is better, and customers are confident in us.” And with that comes more opportunity. They’ve added three more team leads and two more warehouse supervisors through promotions.
• If you enrolled in the initial ESPP enrollment period, deductions are taken from paychecks each pay period and shares will be purchased on your behalf on Dec. 15 Participation continues automatically for future offering periods.
• The ESPP operates on a six-month cycle, with two enrollment and offering periods each year.
• The second enrollment period runs Nov. 15–Dec. 10, with deductions taken Dec. 16–June 15, 2027, when shares will be purchased.
• Eligibility requirements: Full-time or part-time (20+ hrs/week), employed by Medline 90+ days before offering period, based in the U.S. or Mexico.
A quarterly Medline employee newsletter
Angelica Chavez recently
The Club A
series spotlighting Medline employees who have been with the company 20 years or longer.
Three companies, many roles: “I started at this location almost 35 years ago with Hudson RCI, assembling breathing circuits and heaters and packing bottles, then moved to picking orders. I was a lead for eight years under Teleflex and became supervisor when we transitioned to Medline four years ago.”
Waterworld: “My expertise is ensuring production stays supplied across all three shifts. Here we produce sterilized water for nebulizer respiratory treatment, packing it in kits with adapters
received from Mexico. My crew of three ships these kits daily after they’re made by other shifts overnight. We send them to B01 in Mundelein for distribution to U.S. customers. For international orders, adapters must be sterilized, so we ship them out weekly for sterilization. Once returned, we kit them with sterilized water and ship to countries including Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Germany, France, and Canada.”
Common misconception: “People sometimes think receiving is easy. But it’s not just putting product away—it’s getting the product in, inventorying the product and maintaining that inventory in the system so it stays in good standing, uploaded and processed accurately. The system can be complicated.”
Production with a purpose: “We care about how we handle a product, because when you think about it, you could be on a respiratory machine at some point. You might need it, or a family member might need it. What we’re doing affects people’s lives.”
When teamwork delivered a life-saving solution
During severe weather in California last year, a patient urgently needed a lifesaving ENFit® pump bag. Road closures made delivery impossible; neither the fire department nor our customer Arrowhead Regional Medical Center had the product on hand.
Working closely with Manny Delgadillo in Operations and the team at C09 in Rialto, Calif.,
Customer Service
team ensured the order was processed without delay, while Medline’s Sales and Supply Chain Optimization teams supported backend coordination to move the order forward.
Once ready, the fire department picked up the supplies from C09 and delivered them directly to the patient, helping save a life and avoid an emergency airlift.
This effort truly demonstrated a Medline team who worked
Samantha Agnew-White
Supervisor, sterilized water production
Current location: Arlington Heights, Ill.
Started with Medline: September 1991 with Hudson RCI, later acquired by Teleflex in 2004 and Medline in 2022
From respiration to recreation: “My husband and I live on the West Side of Chicago. When it’s warm, we walk to Lake Michigan. It’s calm watching the water. We like to go to concerts or just relax at home and sit out back. I have two granddaughters I spend time with, although the oldest is 17 now, so she doesn’t have time for Grandma anymore [laughs]. But the 14-year-old still comes over on the weekends.”
Up her alley: “I love bowling. I’m not good enough at it to get those high scores, but I love to get in a couple of games. We’ll get together as a family, my sisters, nieces, nephews, my kids and my grandkids, and we’ll make it a family event. Like, five lanes.”
Biggest lesson in 35 years: “To always be attentive, be productive, listen to your peers. Communication is key. That’s my biggest thing—communication.”
Congratulations to NAMIC, our manufacturing plant in Glens Falls, NY. They have been named a “Best of the Region” winner by The Post-Star in the category of Best Company to Work For: medium size (100–999 employees)
together, demonstrating all of our values, to help our customer serve a patient in need.
Happy anniversary, Medline
This year marks a milestone for Medline, our 60th anniversary. We’re not just a part of healthcare, we’re woven into it—and we’re already building what our customers need next. Thank you for all you do to make healthcare run better!
