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This North American Warehouse doubled their efficiency without adding to their staff!
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Phone:440-943-4111 |
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Issue 1109,Vol.10 | |
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Aisles, Dock and Carts: A Winning Combination
In the past, shipping/receiving docks situated close to storage racks most likely meant that an order picker would be driven to the dock and wait while its fork platform was either loaded or unloaded. This process consumed multiple people as both the dock personnel and the order picker driver worked together. However, concerns about efficiency changed the thinking at one North American furniture warehouse, resulting in a lean material handling approach.
American Signature has distribution facilities for couches, love seats, chairs and other furniture items in many locations across the country. At their Columbus, OH location, they were concerned about the number of people involved with the movement of product from the dock to the narrow storage racks located nearby. They felt that a lean material handling approach would free up personnel to work on other tasks.
The Solution
A K-Tec picker cart replaced static platforms on the order pickers, enabling dock personnel to directly load/unload carts at the dock face. Meanwhile, the order picker driver was free to pick and stock inventory without being delayed by dock face operations.
In a typical receiving operation, empty picker carts are manually moved into the truck trailers for loading. Once loaded, they are moved to a staging area next to the dock. In the meantime, the order picker driver drops off another empty cart and pushes the loaded cart onto the order picker forks for transport to the appropriate aisle. In the shipping operation, the reverse happens: pickers take full carts to the docks and return with empties to pick inventory.
The American Signature warehouse doubled their efficiency without adding any personnel by replacing their static pick platforms with order picker carts.
Click to view video...
If you have any questions about the use of industrial carts for creating a lean material handling solution, call us at 440-943-4111 to learn more about getting started.
Larry Tyler
Founder & Principal, K-Tec
Where materials flow by design
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Does lean material flow apply to warehouses?
 It seems that many times a lean material handling approach only gets PR when it was applied to a complex production process. However, lean material handling means waste elimination regardless of the complexity of the situation.
Indeed some warehouse operations, especially those with thousands of SKUs and very high volume cannot help but be complex. However, even a simple bulk pick and deliver operation can benefit greatly from very simple, low-cost solutions.
Carts as Lean Material Flow Solutions
These warehouse industrial carts feature compact frames and formed/welded steel panels. They can hold up to 1,000 lbs. of dunnage and are available in a variety of sizes to best fit your load.
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