Cliff Holste at Supply Chain Digest (opens in a new window) has a good piece on ways to improve picking productivity.
Distribution centers will benefit from emerging automated case picking technologies, but those don’t fit for every operation, at every level. They’re also expensive upgrades, so your ROI has to be considered as well.
Tags: Warehouse Management, warehousing, order fulfillment, distribution center, ROI, Order Picking & Fulfillment
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
It ought to be fairly simple, but specifying the right workbench for your application is something that requires thought and pre-planning if you want to maximize your time and labor. Minor differences in the type of bench can provide critical benefits that add up to major productivity gains over time. Benches aren’t the simple, static equipment many believe. Here are some traits to consider.
Tags: work bench, warehousing, workstations, ergonomics, workbenches
Posted in Storage, Organization & Workstations|
Next time you’re standing there wondering where you’re going to put an inbound shipment while your dock is stacked with empty pallets, look at those doors (or at the void above them)Â —Â the copious space between the top of the doors and the ceiling is unused. Multiply each door by that amount of space, and in many operations, we’re talking serious amounts of unused square footage.
The easy solution: find a use for it with over-dock-door storage. You can’t really rack heavy stuff up there without some significant structure. The best thing to consider is empty pallets, which take up a ton of room and are relatively lightweight. And usually, they’re all over the floor and always in your way. Empty pallets clutter up the shipping & receiving docks or can take up positions in your racks that would be better suited to full pallets of finished goods or incoming shipments.
Tags: space savings, industrial safety, dock doors, pallets, warehousing, Material Handling, Pallet Rack
Posted in Space Optimization & Planning|
Gravity skate wheel conveyor is probably the most economical conveyor option around for quick, portable movement of lightweight boxes, totes, or trays.
You see it used in shipping & receiving areas, in assembly operations, or as a transitional piece between workstations and powered conveyor lines. You can even slap casters on it for a conveyor that can be rolled in & out of use areas. We even plug it into gravity flow racks to create heavier-duty, FIFO flow storage.
For such a simple piece of conveying equipment — in fact the simplest — errors can and do crop up when it’s ordered incorrectly.
Tags: Conveyor, warehousing, Material Handling, Hytrol
Posted in Conveyor Optimization|
This is a series of posts we’ll be making about saving space in your facility. There are plenty of ways to better utilize space, and some of them might fit your circumstances while others certainly won’t. In today’s challenging business climate, it is particularly critical to use space wisely in your facility.
Tags: materials handling, saving space, modular storage systems, warehousing
Posted in Space Optimization & Planning|
When your load is case-picked, relatively light, and smooth, column flow racks allow you to create storage density and increase the number of pick faces.
Tags: warehousing, Material Handling, distribution center, Carton flow rack, gravity flow systems, Order Picking & Fulfillment
Posted in Order Picking & Fulfillment|
We’ve created an informative article you should check out if you are thinking of installing a mezzanine in your facility.
When implementing an Industrial Equipment Platform (mezzanine) be sure that you are not putting too much stress or weight on the floor of the building. Too much weight will cause the floor to crack – or worse. This article tells you how to calculate the correct load capacity and column spacing for any new structural mezzanine project. Floor capacity depends on the thickness of the concrete, but that’s not the end of the story. It also matters how much the soil underneath the slab will compress.
Click “Calculating Mezzanine Floor Capacities” to get the whole story…
Tags: work platforms, warehousing, Material Handling, order fulfillment, Mezzanines, industrial storage, productivity
Posted in Mezzanines & Industrial Platforms|
When you are running an operation with lots of racking, it isn’t uncommon to have to replace an occasional upright or beam, or to add new bays onto an existing row. Sometimes you cannot avoid it, as the rack was purchased years ago, by someone else, or from a source you can’t even locate. It might be that you bought used rack and need to fill some gaps in, or it may be perfectly good, 10-year old rack that just needs some damaged components replaced.
This is done all the time, and although it isn’t an optimum situation for rack stability and safety, you can minimize the issues by following the following guidelines:
Tags: storage, industrial accident prevention, beams, uprights, warehousing, Material Handling, Pallet Rack, warehouse safety
Posted in Pallet & Warehouse Racks|
A few months ago, we posted a Guide to Vertical Reciprocating Conveyors (you might find it useful if you’re looking at any application that moves a load up and down at least one level integrated with a shaft, mezzanine or other area). That guide includes the following questions, should be helpful as you move ahead with your project.
Tags: warehousing, Material Handling, vertical lifts, vrc, mezzanine lifts, Automation
Posted in Lifting & Lift Systems|
With the growing popularity of automating the palletizing function, we arranged an interview with vonGAL, a leading manufacturer who has the largest installed base of palletizers in the country. Bobby Edmond is vonGAL’s Director of Applications, and has been in the business for 25 years. He has seen applications in a wide range of industries, and in companies large and small. I asked him if he would take time to share his thoughts, and answer a few questions of interest to those that might be considering palletizing for the first time.
Tags: Factory Automation, warehousing, Material Handling, shipping, order fulfillment, Palletizers, palletizing
Posted in Automation, Labor & Efficiency|
