May, 2015 | Warehousing Insights | Material Handling Systems
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Conveyor Maintenance Tips to Reduce Downtime, Missed Deadlines & Headaches

May 26, 2015

conveyor maintenance team

Your conveyors are the unsung hero of your facility, delivering product quickly and efficiently at the push of a button (or automatically in many cases) where it’s needed, when it’s needed. Most people don’t think about their conveyors and automated equipment much, but if it breaks down, you suddenly can’t think of much else. You simply can’t afford downtime when material handling equipment is delivering your core business.

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Posted in Conveyor Optimization|

Climate Control Options for Industrial Operations

May 21, 2015

High-volume Low-speed Fan

Do areas of your facility require constant temperatures? Are your employees dealing with significant seasonal temperature variations? These situations all require special conditions – often conditions that are hard to control with people and equipment moving in and out all the time. Let’s examine some climate control options outside the world of HVAC equipment.

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Posted in Safety & Ergonomics|

How Warehouse Safety Technology is Changing Everything

May 19, 2015

order picking in a rack aisle

Scene: a typical, busy warehouse

A fulfillment center with row upon row of pallet racks. Eight dock doors occupy one wall of the building, some for receiving, some for shipping. Pick workers work in the rack aisles pushing carts and pallet jacks loaded with picked orders. Other pick workers have empty totes on carts for pulling orders. Fork trucks stock pallet rack and pull bulk stock for large orders. Dock doors are left open much of the time, even when there’s no trailer at the dock.

How many potential safety risks can you envision in this scenario? How do you prevent those from happening?

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Posted in Safety & Ergonomics|

High-Speed Doors Enhance Productivity, Limit Contaminants, Reduce Energy Costs

May 12, 2015

High-Speed Vinyl Door

Somewhere in your facility, there may be a place where someone frequently shouts “shut the door!”

Perhaps you have operations that require maintaining temperatures within certain limits. There may also be areas heavy-traffic areas where a conventional overhead door’s slow lift and close rates cause delays, slower throughput and cause reduced productivity from waiting on a door to open.

These are situations where a high-speed door may solve a variety of problems. From limiting airborne debris, dust and contaminant infiltration to temperature regulation, high-speed doors pick up the pace in your facility even as they limit the amount of exposure to negative environmental influences. They open and close so quickly that forklifts and people hardly need wait on the door in order to pass through the doorway. Let’s take a few minutes to explore the types and key features of high-speed doors.

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Posted in Docks & Shipping|

How to Create an Effective Incentive Program

May 7, 2015

warehouse workers

Incentive programs are surprisingly common for industrial operations, and they can produce significant savings, quality increases and improved employee satisfaction – if the program is built correctly. In manufacturing, assemblers are often incentivized for quality and speed. In warehousing, it can be reduced product damage, pick rates, error rates or any number of other categories. When companies build out these programs, there are opportunities to create great value. How are companies going about this?

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Posted in Manufacturing|

Separate Functions without Building Walls

May 5, 2015

Things get a little messy sometimes in most industrial facilities. Or a lot messy.

Areas where sprays and aerosols are used aren’t friendly to the rest of the operation, but they also need to exist in the same facility. Perhaps thermal zones are needed where there was once plenty of space. Welding stations may be in areas more highly populated with other workers. Amongst all these considerations is also the fluidity of your operations as the company grows and changes. Are permanent solutions (walls) the right answer?

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Posted in Safety & Ergonomics|

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