Most every manufacturing or distribution facility builds in storage and handling buffers – and for good reason. Buffers hold product or processes when work flow isn’t balanced. For instance, a conveyor buffer may exist between picking and packing operations. This allows picking to continue even if the packing, quality control or shipping departments are backed up. Buffers maintain balance between functions and ensure continuity.
Tags: order fulfillment, ROI, conveyor design, Space Optimization
Posted in Automation, Labor & Efficiency|
In our latest Shoptalk installment, employee-owner Amanda of our Systems Integration Group discusses how EDC upgraded and expanded its pick module operations.
Tags: Shoptalk, warehousing, order fulfillment, Mezzanines, Order Picking & Fulfillment, ecommerce
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
Above: flow storage installed on pallet rack beams in a distribution center
To increase warehouse productivity, reducing the time it takes for people to execute a task is always going to pay off. One way to do that is to concentrate on picking areas so that people are able to get what they need faster and more efficiently. A common gravity flow application is to mount shelves of flow storage on pallet rack so you can mix & match gravity flow and bulk pallet storage in the same structure for both existing and new rack systems.
Whether you’re adding flow storage to an existing rack system or building it from new, this guide should help you get started.
Tags: order fulfillment, picking
Posted in Pallet & Warehouse Racks|
The shift from traditional retail to ecommerce is accelerating, and with that growth there are both challenges and opportunities for order fulfillment operations. Companies that spent decades perfecting retail distribution (large, bulk orders to a network of stores) are shifting toward direct-to-consumer shipments that are orders of magnitude more difficult to manage.
Among other things, this means that ecommerce companies must focus on optimal packaging. At Modex 2018, an industry expert panel including Hytrol’s Boyce Bonham discussed these issues.
Tags: Order Picking & Fulfillment, ecommerce, order fulfillment
Posted in Conveyor Optimization|
With the rising costs of workers’ compensation insurance and global pressures to increase productivity, warehouse and distribution center managers are taking a much closer look at improving ergonomics. With as many as 65% of worker’s compensation claims associated with manual materials handling, insurance companies are raising their rates—or mandating ergonomic improvements for continued coverage.
Equipment suppliers are responding to the need, engineering and designing features into their products to help workers minimize the strains associated with lifting, reaching, twisting, pulling and pushing. These new product features can also help address the demand for increased productivity as well.
Tags: Material Handling, order fulfillment, warehouse safety, ergonomics, plant safety, Order Picking & Fulfillment, Safety & Ergonomics
Posted in Safety & Ergonomics|
Companies spend lots of time trying to understand the best ways to increase efficiency in their operations. How do I increase pick rates? Why do we spend more time on things that add no value than we should? Why do we make so many mistakes, and how do I stop it? Why is there so much waste in the system? How can this be better organized?
These are all good questions, and the answer to solving these problems usually lies in developing people to work their best.
In this day and age of increasing industrial productivity, tough global competition, and tight labor, integrating personnel development with best practices facility design, automation, processes and management is key to reducing labor costs, increasing margins, and becoming a more profitable operation. People thrive in good environments where they are set up to succeed. What can you do to build the right situation for your people?
Tags: Third Party Logistics, employee development, ecommerce, 3PL, order fulfillment, labor
Posted in Warehousing & Distribution|
Order fulfillment operations come in all sizes, shapes and types, including a basket of challenges that diversity creates. One of the most difficult challenges in this industry is developing order picking talent. It’s competitive these days, as you know, for distribution facilities and e-commerce fulfillment centers. One of the best ways to enhance those operations is to develop your labor force more fully. What can you do?
Tags: ecommerce, 3PL, order fulfillment, distribution systems, labor, Third Party Logistics, picking
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
I received a newsletter the other day that really hit home during this busy Christmas season. It was about keeping warehouse order pickers motivated in their work and I thought, “That’s really key during peak seasons when highly stressed workers can get burned out quickly.” So, how do you keep order pickers moving when they’re already under the gun?
Tags: warehousing, order fulfillment, worker safety, worker satisfaction, motivation, performance improvement
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
The focus when it comes to order picking is usually (and justifiably) on the fastest-moving product. You slot your warehouse for fast movers. You pareto-focus on the 20% of the product that generates 80% of the business, as you should. But it’s also useful to consider the slow-moving inventory and pick locations. Simply putting the slowest movers in the least accessible area may make them consume more order picking time and storage space than necessary.
Tags: order fulfillment, Industrial Shelving, carton flow racks
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
Ever find yourself wondering how you can get more out of your pallet rack? Do you have goods that take up very little space, but your pick operations don’t call for entire pallets full of the product? Then you might need to look at ways to achieve more density in your storage, and we’ve recently found a gem of a product that can help you out. It’s called Dynamic High Density Storage and it’s made by SpeedCell.
Tags: Warehouse Management, warehousing, Pallet Rack, order fulfillment, warehouse storage, space savings, storage, industrial storage, distribution center, Order Picking & Fulfillment
Posted in Pallet & Warehouse Racks|
