While there are dozens and dozens of shelving manufacturers and even more variations of trade names for them, there are really just three basic kinds of industrial shelving manufactured and broadly used — Rivet-Type, Steel Clip, and Wire. Of course, there are more variations of these shelving types than you can imagine, but most shelving boils down to these kinds. You can also consider bulk rack as “shelving”, but we have found that heavy duty rivet shelving often fulfills the roles it has typically filled.

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A quick note: Cisco-Eagle is a sponsor of the University of Arkansas RFID Research center. We’ve been involved with the center since its 2005 inception. I’ve visited the center a number of times, and have seen the innovative work that’s being done.

The center continues to excel with this study on the effect of RFID technology on inventory accuracy.

The study confirms that RFID can have a significant positive effect on retail inventory accuracy. For players like Wal-Mart, this means millions of dollars in savings. A preliminary analysis demonstrated that an automated, RFID-enabled inventory system improved accuracy by about 13% in test stores compared to control stores.

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It’s safe to say that there is shelving of some kind in almost every warehousing operation. Even a sophisticated distribution center usually has some fallback storage in the form of rack, shelving or other storage. For those applications that require a lot of heavy-duty shelving, though, issues of capacity come to the forefront.

A few years back, we had a customer who asked us to quote a good amount of rivet shelving (you might call it particle board, boltless, or by a brand like Riveteer or Penco’s Rivet Rite). It was a good sized project and that customer ended up buying it used from another company. He was happy with it right up until it collapsed and dumped hundreds of bins of aerospace components to the floor. The problem? He was storing something very heavy on either a shelf or on a post that couldn’t handle it. Once one of the shelves buckled, it set off a chain reaction that was kind of like dominoes and a whole lot of shelves went down. The components were similar looking, except for sizes, and it was pretty much a total loss.

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The big news out of Washington the last couple of months has been on the tax rebate part of economic stimulus. What may have more impact on the economy, and will certainly have more impact on people in the warehousing or manufacturing business, are the business tax breaks that quietly came along with it. We’ll break them down into two primary areas…

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Sure, we’ve heard all the talk of lean manufacturing, but what about lean warehousing? I’ve been in facilities that have straightened production lines in pursuit of lean principles, and those lines included storage factors and materials handling, but I’ve never seen it specifically done in a distribution operation. Many warehousing operations have probably applied aspects of lean in the warehousing process, but how many have, from top to bottom, implemented a lean warehousing program?

The original concept of lean was designed for mass production of identical or similar items, so a straight conversion to warehousing, where volumes aren’t massive or standardized, isn’t a given. You can’t apply the science of lean exactly the same way, but you can definitely apply it.

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We see a lot of structural mezzanines in our business in a range of facilities. They range from professionally manufactured to home-made, with quite a few fabricated by a local shop. It’s a good business for the fabrication shops (although maybe not so much for end-users, given the pitfalls), and if you go that route, you need to be sure your mezzanine fabricator is complying with OSHA & local safety regulations, particularly on guard railing, stairs and gates. You also have to look at local building codes. If your fabricator doesn’t routinely work with mezzanines, this is something you’ll have to do on your own. It’s not something to dismiss lightly. Honestly the best policy is to look at established vendors like WilDeck if you don’t want to micro-manage the details of building permits, code compliance, and OSHA’s blessings.

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We’ve been busy adding video in various areas of the website, focusing first on conveyors.

There have been quite a few added in recent days. It’s all embedded in web pages (no media player needed!) so it’s easy to view and not worry about having the right player. The videos tend to be the first thing you’ll see when the page loads. Just click ‘em and they play at your convenience.

In no particular order, here they are:

• E24 power roller conveyor
• ABEZ live roller accumulation conveyor (scroll down a bit for this one)
  
• Model TA slider bed belt conveyor
• The Gapper powered belt gap conveyor
• Slat Sortation Conveyors: Hytrol ProSort 131
• Slat Sortation Conveyors: Hytrol 421 & 431
• Belt Sortation Systems - Hytrol SC Sortation Conveyor
• Sortation Belt Conveyors - Hytrol SC1 & SC2
  

There will be lots more added in the next few weeks. Also, we have added case study videos heavy on conveyor. That includes Excel Beef and ATC Logistics at the moment. More of these coming as available.

To watch, just click the video screen that loads on each page. You can pause by clicking again.

To max out both storage and selectivity, warehouse managers are frequently moving to higher-density storage systems like pushback rack instead of floor stacking or selective racks. Whether a pushback system makes sense for you is something that depends on what you’re storing, how you are accessing it, and what you need to do with it once it’s picked.

Pushback rack systems can give you up to 90% more product storage than selective storage rack systems and up to 400% more selectivity than drive-in racking systems. They’re probably the best balance between selectivity and storage density.

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WERC (the Warehousing Education and Research Council) does some great work.The group offers a terrific online research library with tons of links to web pages and PDF’s on everything from case studies to equipment analysis to facilities issues, people, processes, metrics and tons more. Another excellent resource is always WERC’s annual conference (May 2009 in Chicago) as well as local conferences like the ones we have attended in Dallas the last couple of years. The national event has Stephen Covey, author of The Speed of Trust this year.

Its self-study guides are good, and inexpensive at $14.95 for members and just $29 for nonmembers, with detailed information on personnel, processes, and more.

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It’s more immediate of course, when the cost at the pump jumps, but rising fuel costs are a reality in your shipping operations whether you are pushing product to customers or bringing it into your facility. We’ve all seen the fuel surcharges and continually-rising freight rates.

According to Operations & Fulfillment, labor developments may have just as much impact over the next few years. Over the next 5 years, the latest UPS contract amounts to a $9 per hour labor cost increase, which will certainly make its way downstream to shipping charges. Developments in other companies such as FedEx and labor negotiations across the shipping and freight world mean that even if fuel prices stabilize, it’ll cost you more to ship and receive products.

Curt Barry’s article at Operations & Fulfillment recommends some of the steps you can take…

1. Look at transportation in the context of the total supply chain efficiency. (see Curt’s article for tips).
2. Institute vendor compliance policies, include routing guides for inbound carriers. Do not permit vendor-controlled freight..
3. For high returns businesses, use return services.
4. Join an inbound freight consortium with contracted carriers and negotiated best rates.
5. Do your homework. You have to understand your volume and shipping characteristics, etc.
6. Consider a freight consultant, which can reduce costs 15% to 25%.