Features/Benefits Provided: Shuttle VLMs eliminate walk and search time. Manufacturing space tripled. Any part can be located in less than 20 seconds!

As a Michigan based manufacturer grew from a small job shop to a high volume coupling supplier to the automotive and heavy equipment industry, its 25,000 sq. ft. facility began to get crowded. More tabletop assembly space was needed to meet steadily rising orders. Driving the need for assembly space was the intensive backroom assembly required for couplings and bell housing orders. As orders arrived, a clipboard containing relevant order details would be given to the assembler who would pick the parts needed from rows of conventional steel shelving before starting the job. A typical order for 100 housing assemblies, for example, would send the assembler searching for parts for about a half an hour.

Accommodating hot jobs was also becoming a problem. When a hot job came in, work on a less urgent project would stop, the parts were put away and the hot project parts were picked and assembled. Once the hot job was completed the parts were picked again for the original project. This was time-consuming and costly and was happening repeatedly. At least three times more tabletop space was needed to solve such problems, and short of building an addition, the parts storage area was the only place to find space. After an evaluation of several solutions, the most efficient and economical solution was to implement an automatic storage and retrieval system. All 27,000 pounds of parts stored in a 1,000 sq. ft. shelving area were condensed vertically into three 17-foot tall shuttle vertical lift modules (VLM) occupying a total of 78 sq. ft. including 69 sq. ft. for the operator work area. This was accomplished by storing in 436 cubic feet and eliminating the walk and work areas required by the conventional shelving. Each shuttle VLM tray can hold up to 900 pounds of parts, tools or equipment. The system can support up to 65 tray locations, depending on the height of the objects stored, but it is now configured for 35 trays leaving room for future expansion. With the space recovered, the tabletop assembly area was expanded from 40 to 120 linear feet, enough space to handle 3-4 hot jobs at one time without having to halt existing orders.

With the AS/RS system in place, transition from manual to automated inventory management was made. As a result, any part can now be located in less than 20 seconds! The inventory management software has also eliminated the need for manual inventories by providing the ability to print out the contents of the shuttle VLM at any given time.

is a Proud Member of the AS/RS Product Section of Material Handling Industry of America

41 Eisenhower Drive
Westbrook, ME 04092
Toll Free: 800-639-5805    Phone: 207-854-1861
info@remstar.com
www.Remstar.com