In any warehouse or distribution facility, there are two critical—and usually very limited—commodities: time and space.
Warehouses and DC’s are limited by these two constraints – you basically have your square footage, your people, and 24 hours in a day—or less, if you aren’t running three shifts. These constraints drive us to refine processes and optimize performance. Let’s discuss a type of equipment that can save time and slash the need for space: spiral conveyors.
Tags: Space Optimization
Posted in Conveyor Optimization|
Performance metrics are a universal way to measure a warehouse operation’s overall effectiveness, quality and productivity. In today’s fast-paced and competitive environment, setting benchmarks and goals for a company is essential, but it’s not enough to set lofty goals for the coming year in terms of revenue, profits or production. In the warehouse, success is the sum of all its parts. To reach overall production, quality, safety or service goals, an examination of each step is essential. Through this evaluation process of different performance metrics, managers can find actionable information and begin prioritizing problems within a warehousing or distribution operation.
We’ve previously discussed how key performance indicators (KPIs) demonstrate the value of warehouse functions. Now, let’s take a dive deeper into five specific performance metrics to consider implementing in the modern warehouse. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Warehousing & Distribution|
Most people work less effectively, are less comfortable, and have poorer attitudes in a messy environment. For industrial facility operators, housekeeping can sometimes lag behind with busy days where people hardly have time to look up, much less deal with the clutter and byproducts of meeting shipping deadlines or production demands.
Tags: warehouse cleanliness, 5S principles, industrial hygiene
Posted in Safety & Ergonomics|
When you have bulk materials to store and handle, when is it best to stack them on the floor, and when do you need to move it to storage equipment like heavier racks? How can you safely and effectively stack these materials on the ground? OSHA offers some guidelines on the question from a safety perspective. When you do opt for either floor stacking or rack storage, what are some safeguards you should take?
Posted in Material Handling|
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.
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
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.
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.
Tags: Wide Span Shelving, high capacity, bulky items, large items, wide items
Posted in Storage, Organization & Workstations|
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.
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.
Tags: cab cover, tine guide, blue light, training, forklift safety, forklift, guard rail, operations, accessories, traffic sensor
Posted in Forklift - Pedestrian Safety|
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?
Tags: facility safety, hand rails, bollards, traffic management, guard rail systems
Posted in Safety & Ergonomics|
