Especially as the economic recovery continues, it’s important to control costs in your operation. What are some warehousing cost-cutting methods you can employ that don’t require extensive investment or re-tooling? Most of the costs of warehousing operations fall into the following categories:

• People
• Real Estate, Utilities & other Fixed Costs
• Inventory
• Technology

Read the rest of this entry »

In this video, a Fanuc robot is executing mixed-load palletizing of beer cases at a distribution center.

In this operation, differently-sized beer cases are conveyed to the robot to fulfill a specific order. Since the cases vary by width, length, and height, their dimensional information is sent to the robot by the WMS (warehouse management system). The robot utilizes mixed-load palletizing software to determine the best pattern to build a pallet with the available products, achieving high density and stack stability with rapid speed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Nashville Wire, a manufacturer of wire rack decking, folding wire containers, rivet shelving deck, and more has named Cisco-Eagle to its list of top 10 distributors for 2010.

“We pride ourselves on our product quality, our service, and our integrity,” said a letter from the company. These values have guided us through the years and helped us form relationships with companies such as Cisco-Eagle that brought us to where we are today. We value this relationship and do not take it for granted.”

“Cisco-Eagle appreciates the recognition, as we consider Nashville Wire to be a quality partner with excellent products for our clients,” said Cisco-Eagle president Steve Strifler. “It’s the kind of relationship that can help everyone involved – our customers most of all.”

Pictured is the plaque that was sent accompanying the notice.

Especially in heavy manufacturing, machine shops, petroleum, or chemical operations, large bundles of pipe, tubing, bar stock, or other long, heavy loads must be stored and picked during the day. Multiple ways are available to store these loads.  They can be picked by forklifts, by hand, by hoist or crane. The choices you make will determine how you access the product (and how easily), how much space it takes, and its safety. Here are the options:

Read the rest of this entry »

Improving a warehousing operation is a complex endeavor that can be approached from any number of angles.  Here are 13 common actions you can consider in any warehouse improvement effort…

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve recently posted a guide to stretchwrap machine specification and justification. For operations with the kind of throughput where automation makes sense, machine driven stretchwrappers can enhance quality as well as increase speed. They also offer ergonomic benefits and material savings.

Also, see: standard Stretchwrap Machine models and specs.

There isn’t much other way to say it: If you have a forklift, it is almost surely the most dangerous piece of equipment under your roof. If you have many forklifts, that danger us multiplied.

How dangerous? According to OSHA estimates, there are 61,800 minor injuries, 34,900 serious injuries and 85 forklift related deaths in the United States every year. Since there are almost 900,000 forklifts operating at any given point in the United States, this is something that every operation needs to consider when your forklifts start moving on a busy day. 11% of them stand a good chance of being in an accident or collision. Those aren’t great odds, considering that a forklift in a given warehouse is heavy, moving, and in a noisy and often visually crowded environment.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cisco-Eagle has always provided integrated material handling systems, but we’re entering a new phase by partnering with companies like SSI Schaefer, HighJump WMS, Orion Packaging, Fanuc Robotics, ABB Robotics, von Gal, and more. We recently invited Dr. Sam Chen to join us as Senior Robotics and Software Engineer. Dr. Chen will complement our existing controls and implementation services, allowing us to integrate robotics, palletizers, packaging machinery, and other equipment with conveyors and other material handling solutions.

We have engineered and implemented hundreds of systems in distribution, manufacturing, order fulfillment, and other applications. We can now help clients to a greater degree by providing advanced control systems, robotics, and more.

More details on these partnerships are coming soon.

Conveyors are exceptional in their productivity enhancement for manufacturing and distribution operations, but they need attention – and not just from your maintenance group. Everyone involved with them should be aware of the safety and performance issues involved. Here are five practices for happy conveying…

Read the rest of this entry »

ProMat, the Material Handling Industry’s bi-annual trade show, is coming in March 2011.

The show will feature over 700 exhibiting companies featuring cutting-edge equipment and systems solutions. Choose from 2 keynote addresses, 2 educational tracks and 80 educational sessions that deliver valuable insights into the latest trends, technologies and innovations. The show is March 21-24, 2011 and as usual, is located in Chicago at McCormick Place South.

Read the rest of this entry »