The long path from person to product
In a distribution or warehousing operation, the most common working concept is “person-to-goods” order picking, which simply means that order pickers move to storage locations, often pushing or pulling carts and reading orders off the paper. These pickers spend significant amounts of time walking between storage, and are then expected to decipher an order picking sheet. These operations spend lots of money and time and resources on those steps. Picking paths and storage locations evolve as inventory profiles change — and not always for the better.
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Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
What Does a Warehouse Management System Do?
A medium-sized chain of convenience stores once asked me to take a look at their Warehouse Management System (WMS) to see if it was time for an upgrade. After documenting all the functions it performed, we discovered that none of them could be described as serving warehouse activities. The system had lots of good purchasing functions—but offered nothing to support the actual warehouse.
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Tags: WMS, Factory Automation, Warehouse Management
Posted in Automation, Labor & Efficiency|
There are all kinds of shelving options for typical loads, but what do you do with the really heavy, dense, or bulky items that just won’t work on conventional shelving, but that aren’t loaded on a pallet rack? Or things that aren’t big enough to store on pallet racks, but don’t fit into standard shelving? That’s where wide span bulk shelving comes into play. It’s similar to pallet rack, but built for hand-loaded case or piece storage.
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Tags: wide items, Wide Span Shelving, high capacity, bulky items, large items
Posted in Storage, Organization & Workstations|
More and more companies are adding various forms of robotics to their operations as they seek to improve productivity, enhance worker safety, and keep labor costs down. We recently spoke with Wes Garrett, Packaging Account Manager at FANUC America about robotics in the material handling industry. He provided some great information regarding cost of ownership, indicators robotics may benefit an operation, and trends in new technologies.
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Tags: palletizing, Robotics, Packaging
Posted in Automation, Labor & Efficiency|
These collisions have done some damage
In both cases, the guard rail has deformed. That’s good (kind of), because both guardrails have done their jobs and protected the people, equipment or facility structures behind them. On the other hand, you can see that the rail systems have been damaged. Let’s see how they match up in form, function and lifetime cost. Typically when you have a forklift barrier, it will eventually be impacted, and those impacts can be direct or indirect, fast or slow, serious or cosmetic. When the impact is direct, fast and damaging, what are the critical differences in rigid and flexible rail systems?
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Tags: inventory, structure, forklift safety, guarding systems, Steel guard rail, Flexible polymer guard rail, traffic control, pedestrian
Posted in Safety & Ergonomics|
When most of us look at steel shelving we see, well, steel shelving, but the truth is, you can customize it more than any other type of industrial shelving to give you additional storage options that better fit your specific storage needs.
Let’s examine some of the possibilities.
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Tags: Rousseau, Hallowell, Western Pacific, steel shelving, open shelving, closed shelving, drawer modules, bin shelving, parts storage, compartmentalized
Posted in Storage, Organization & Workstations|
Forklifts are often acknowledged as the top safety issue in warehouse and distribution center operations. A number of things make this true: first, forklifts account for 1% of industrial accidents, but 10% of injuries. Secondly, a given forklift has a 90% chance of an accident during its useful life. More alarming is that forklifts account for 85 to 100 deaths in the United States ever year. Let’s explore some ways you can make forklift use safer in your facility.
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Tags: cab cover, tine guide, blue light, training, forklift safety, forklift, guard rail, operations, accessories, traffic sensor
Posted in Forklift - Pedestrian Safety|
We published an article in the third quarter of the MHEDA Journal, Automation and Labor: Can’t They Get Along? The point of that article is that for American labor, robots aren’t currently reducing employment so much as changing it. Automated industries tend to be more profitable and less vulnerable to offshoring and other job-reducing factors.
Our friends at AutoQuip brought up another point—that automated systems and lifts can add valuable years to the working lives of high-skill, aging employees.
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Tags: labor
Posted in Automation, Labor & Efficiency|
Guardrails are used to separate people, structures, machinery and valuable assets from heavy forklifts weighing more than 10,000 pounds. The requirements for durability and impact resistance are demanding, yet many don’t understand what types of impacts their systems can endure, and under what circumstances. The issue is compounded by the fact that many manufacturers simply don’t provide impact ratings for their guard rails. Some companies fabricate and install home-made railing, which is likely to never have been rated at all.
What can you do to ensure your guard railing system can protect your employees and property the way it’s supposed to?
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Tags: traffic management, guard rail systems, facility safety, hand rails, bollards
Posted in Safety & Ergonomics|
Rivet shelving is one of the most versatile forms of industrial shelving available. With individual shelf capacities up to 1,400 pounds, it rivals the load capacity of heavy wide span or pallet rack but is designed for carton and case storage. It assembles quickly due to its tear-drop and pin connectors and is extremely sturdy whether using a single-rivet or double-rivet design. It’s also available in an amazing array of sizes and layouts.
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Tags: carton, storage, rivet shelving, Penco, Western Pacific Storage Solutions
Posted in Storage, Organization & Workstations|
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