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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Many people do not realize that when installing equipment such as pallet racks, mezzanines, shelving, in-plant offices, or many other pieces of common material handling and storage equipment that you may be required to obtain a building permit. If you ignore the building permit process it can cost you money in delays, fines, or even having to remove the equipment being installed until a permit is obtained.

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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%.

“Being a good steward of the environment and in our communities, and being an efficient and profitable business, are not mutually exclusive. In fact they are one in the same.”

— Lee Scott, CEO Wal-Mart, Twenty First Century Leadership, October 24, 2005

Whatever you believe about the issues surrounding climate change, sustainability, and all things “green”, there are certainly people paying attention, and if your business serves consumers, they may be paying attention to the way you conduct business, from the way you make things, handle them in your operations, ship, and handle them.

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For about $110 (or half that if you’re a WERC member) you can buy the Warehousing Education and Research Council Manager’s Guide For Benchmarking. The book details different kinds of benchmarking, why you should benchmark, how to pick appropriate metrics & measurements, and analyze your company’s performance. It’s also got techniques for communicating to get the results you need. The group’s website describes it like this:

“As competition grows for dollars, time and resources, the demand to improve performance takes on greater importance. WERC developed this Guide to Benchmarking to help you unleash the power of benchmarking for your organization. You’ll read about the different kinds of benchmarking, why it’s important to benchmark, how to choose the right metrics, how to analyze your company’s performance, and techniques for communicating to get the results you need. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll learn how to develop a benchmarking strategy specifically for your operation.”

It’s a relatively short, 44-page read. It’s appealing to me because we stress performance measurement at Cisco-Eagle, and the metrics are perhaps the most difficult aspect of that. Get them defined correctly and everything else should fall into place.

If you’ve paid attention to the trade magazines, to this website, or to Hytrol recently, you’ve seen cryptic references to something called “E24”. This week, it’s no longer a secret.

I got to see this conveyor up close a couple of months ago when it was in development at the Hytrol Technology Center, and was sworn to secrecy–which is hard when your job is to tell people about things. Hytrol wanted to have it under wraps until this month and to debut it at their distributor convention. We had the privilege of giving PackExpo attendees a sneak peak at the Cisco-Eagle booth this year, and we were doubly excited after seeing how people reacted to Hytrol’s innovation.

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We’re preparing to release the latest Cisco-Eagle publication: “10 Ways to use Material Handling to Increase Security.” It’s common sense that the way you store, handle, segment, and track inventory has a great deal to do with security. Material handling is important because it’s a persistent, passive enhancement to regular security procedures and equipment. Material handling certainly doesn’t replace guards, careful hiring, a culture of honesty, and camera systems, but it can make all of them better.

1. Store the most valuable, highest risk inventory & tools in secure areas
2. Secure palletized loads, even when stored in racks
3. Tightly control dock door access
4. Secure valuable inventory as early as possible after receiving it, and prior to shipment
5. Enhance security with automated material handling systems
6. Lay out your plant with security considerations in mind
7. Utilize cycle counts, irregular monitoring to detect & deter pilferage
8. Separate staging areas from loading & shipping docks
9. Secure inventory “where it sits” during receiving
10. Erect a barrier between shipping and receiving doors

Sadly, most industrial operations suffer more from employee-based pilferage, since they don’t face shoplifters or other intruders. There is a fully developed industrial security area relating to material handling on our website, with articles, products, specifications, links and more information. Check it out. If you want to receive a copy of the upcoming paper, sign up for Material Handling Tips & Info, our award-winning newsletter. All subscribers will receive a link to the digital version when it publishes.