Archive for the ‘Warehouse managment’ Category:
Radiant Logistics opens a new Airgroup office in San Antonio
Airgroup operates as wholly-owned division of Radiant Global Logistics, Inc. and services a diversified account base including manufacturers, distributors and retailers through its North American network.
Radiant Logistics, Inc., a domestic and international logistics services company, today announced opening of a new Airgroup office in San Antonio, Texas which will operate as a new exclusive agent location and leverage the Company’s robust technology platform and global network to provide domestic and international freight forwarding and logistics services.
Sandra McDow has been chosen to Airgroup-SAT and she says, “We are very excited to be joining Radiant and the Airgroup network. As a group, the Radiant/Airgroup team has a real appreciation for the needs of the local owner/entrepreneur and a clear and achievable plan for building a world class logistics organization. The platform, in terms of people, process, technology and network is unique in the marketplace and represents a compelling opportunity for me and my team. We are looking forward to leveraging our own strengths along with the capabilities of the Radiant network to bring additional value to our customers while enjoying the benefits of participating in an organization that, through its status as a public company, gives us the ability to work as shareholders and participate in the value that we help create.”
Ms. McDow continued: “Through years of dedicated services, our entire San Antonio crew has developed some very strong relationships with our customers, vendors and associates around the globe. Our customers have always remained our top priority whether they were here in Texas or abroad and this philosophy has been the key to our success. As we look to keep pace with the needs of our customers, our service offering is extending beyond the physical movement of goods to include a robust information reporting capability that provides our customers with timely, accurate information around the world. Radiant’s technology platform is already proving to be a great differentiator for us in the marketplace as our customers are gravitating to the web-based transportation management and in transit visibility tools now available. This is only the beginning of our efforts to deliver heightened value added capabilities around our core transportation services.”
Radiant’s Chairman and CEO, Bohn Crain, remarked, “We are very proud to have Sandra and the rest of the San Antonio organization join the Radiant/Airgroup team. We are working very hard to drive continuous improvement across the Company and we remain keenly focused on attracting quality operations like our new Airgroup-SAT station which will continue to strengthen our overall network and help drive our continued organic growth.”
Subscribe to the comments for this postPosi-Plus unveils its articulated telescopic model, the 600-50-A
At the 2009 International Construction and Utility Equipment Exposition (ICUEE), Canadian manufacturer, Posi-Plus, took pride in unveiling its new and the biggest articulated telescopic model, the 600-50-A, which offers a huge material handling capacity, coming in at 2,000 pounds and being the company’s first articulated model.
The 600-50-A has an 8-degree slope certification, a 36.5-foot side reach, 400-pound single bucket capacity and an 84-inch jib with a 60-inch hydraulic extension. “It works well in low and high temps,” Bigras said.
The machine has the capacity to perform up to par in -40 degrees to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It also features a fully proportional feather touch control, a 250-degree continually rotating jib, 55-foot platform height with a 60-foot working height and a 24-inch platform lift.
Speaking on the occasion, Normand Bigras, vice president of sales and marketing for Posi-Plus, reflected on the fact that material handling machines are in high demand for the company, accounting for 80-85 percent of sales. “They have a high capacity, are strong and durable and last up to 25 years.”
“We did a survey (with customers) to create this new unit,” Bigras said. “(Customers) wanted big capacity.”
The emerging trends in WMS systems
The warehouse has changed its form from a static storage facility to a unit which uses virtually real-time data to closely match supply to demand, eliminate the need to hold excess inventory, and increase the flow of goods throughout the supply chain. A such there is a greater need these days to have a warehouse management system (WMS) to manage company’s postponement strategy to delay the customization of products until after the products, or a set of common components, have left the manufacturing plant.
The software market for WMS has consequently become more and more competitive and as such the packages are competing with each other to address more and more customer needs such as more intricate advanced shipping notice (ASN)/radio frequency (RF) receiving, lot/expiration control, location/carton selection, wave building, labor planning, advanced kitting, wave templates, material selection, compliance labeling, picking/packing, cluster/batch picking, serial number capture, catch-weight capture, cycle counting, task management, replenishment, container tracking, cross docking, report generation, shipping paperwork, automated rule checking, carton selection, etc.
Now-a-days, a typical WMS solution has evolved from merely storage and retrieval of inventory to strategies which increase throughput and productivity by managing a full range of warehouse resources to effectively manage common warehouse business processes and direct warehouse activities. The typical functions addressed by a WMS system include the following:
1. The receiving function which encompasses the physical receipt of material, the inspection of the shipment for conformance with the purchase order [i.e., quantity and damage], the identification and delivery to destination, and the preparation of receiving reports
2. The put-away function which involves removing the material from the dock (or other location of receipt), transporting the material to a storage area, placing that material in a staging area and then moving it to a specific location, and recording the movement and identification of the location where the material has been placed.
3. Order picking which includes selecting or “picking” the required quantity of specific products for movement to a packaging area (usually in response to one or more shipping orders) and documenting that the material was moved from one location to shipping
4. Staging and consolidated shipping which involves physically moving material from the packing area to a staging area, based on a prescribed set of instructions related to a particular outbound vehicle or delivery route, often for shipment consolidation purposes
5. Inventory cycle counting where inventory is counted on a cyclic schedule rather than once a year.
Thus, WMS applications traditionally automate activities that fall within the four walls of a warehouse, such as receiving, put-away, serialization, picking, packing, and shipping.
How to get a well-designed warehouse that suits your needs?
When building or re-engineering distribution centers, you need a detailed planning process to ensure they meet return on investment expectations. For this, you need to follow seven basic steps when planning a warehouse or distribution center.
1. The first step involves defining goals and objectives which include minimizing warehousing operating costs, maximizing picking productivity, or simply providing the best customer service.
2. Consult your staff by conducting personal interviews with those dedicated to all major functional areas within the process. If those interviewed can’t identify areas of opportunity for improvement in their department or area, you should look to interview more from that department or functional area as there is always room for improvement.
3. Collect information and data about existing space for the new facility which should include accurate drawings showing column sizes and locations, dock and personnel doors and locations, ceiling height restrictions, and ceiling girder/joist construction.
4. After collecting data about the space and the inventory, conduct an analysis with the following questions like how well does the product flow into, within, and out of the facility, is the storage system and area large enough to accommodate the inventory including any required safety stock, what type of conveying and sortation equipment will be used, what are the staffing requirements, etc.
5. Create a detailed project plan which includes start and end dates for all tasks, as well as availability of resources. Once the plan has been developed, it should be reviewed and checked to be sure the timeline is realistic and attainable.
A well-designed and well-planned warehouse or distribution center is a principle key in keeping you ahead in this business world. With each careful step from start to finish, the result will be a facility that operates efficiently, uses space effectively, maintains cost control, and in the end achieves its ultimate goal of meeting expectations.
TriFactor to guide through ‘Critical Steps in Properly Planning a Distribution Center’
TriFactor, LLC, a leading provider of integrated material handling systems, is sponsoring a seminar focusing on the seven critical factors in successful warehouse and distribution center planning. Craig Bertorello, Vice President of Operations at TriFactor, with 16 years experience in designing and implementing material handling systems is presenting the seminar.
The seminar titled, “Critical Steps in Properly Planning a Distribution Center,” will benefit companies who seek to change the layout of their current warehouse or planning a new warehouse or distribution center. The topics to be covered in the seminar range from product storage to increasing throughput, process flow and slotting analysis, and more. Attention will also be given to determining storage and picking dominance by use of a seven-step process and a 10-point planning checklist.
Says Bertorello, “By focusing on a layout that fits storage and activity levels, you can reduce construction costs that occur from mistakes. This seminar will show how to position your company for projected future needs and to get the highest return on investment through efficient design. It is for those considering a new facility or re-engineering an existing building.”
The seminar will be held at two locations; Wednesday, October 21 at the Radisson Hotel, 4700 Salisbury Road in Jacksonville, FL, and Wednesday, October 28 at the TriFactor Learning Center, 2401 Drane Field Road in Lakeland.
Using Conveyor systems for movement of materials
In the material handling industry, one equipment which is undeniably the best choice for transferring load from one place to another is the conveyor system which helps expedite the movement of materials between people or automated equipment or between people to automated equipment. Be it wood, metal, cardboard or plastic, a conveyor system can be used efficiently to move every kind of material.
Right from warehouse operations to manufacturing, commercial and distributive applications, a conveyor system comes to help everywhere. The range of industrial sector where this equipment is widely used includes airport, cement, environment, manufacturing, sugar processing etc.
A conveyor system offers many advantages including better space usage, flexible product routing, reduced manual material handling, increased production output and reliable and cost effective solutions.
Depending on the materials to be transported, the application and the industry where it is used and different usages, there are various varieties of conveyor systems which can be classified as belt conveyor, gravity conveyor, hytrol conveyor, unit load conveyor, roller conveyor etc. These systems run on power or gravity and its major components include drivers, pulleys and belts.
For maximum productivity, one should choose the right conveyor system depending on the weight, form, width, and height of the product to be handled.
Increasing importance of Automated Guided Vehicles in distribution operations
Automated Guided Vehicles have been around for over 50 years. These battery-driven, unmanned vehicles, are supposedly the simplest form of robot but ironically they have not found a strong place in distribution operations although they provide added benefit of doing away with human operators using traditional material handling equipment such as fork trucks or pallet jacks. As recently as 2006, according to statistics from the Material Handling Institute of America (MHIA), only one of the 102 AGV system deployments in the US was in a purely distribution center application.
The primary reason which can be attributed to the unpopularity of these AGVs is the lack of actual and/or perceived flexibility in the distribution process. Where distribution centers are much more dynamic with variable movement paths, manufacturing, movement paths are often very static and repetitive. This is the reason why traditional AGV technology is comparatively popular with manufacturing processes.
However, recent trends have shown a growth of AGVs in distribution owing to the change in labor and demographic trends, added with recent technology advances. Laser-guided systems have increased overall AGV flexibility, as have new control systems capabilities.
Several AGVs providers have introduced new AGV systems for automated trailer loading and unloading, using new sensors and control systems that enable them to much more flexibly deal with pallet handling issues inside the trailer.
AGV technology in distribution can be applied to following processes:
Unit load/pallet movement from receiving to drop areas, from drop areas to staging locations, from reserve to forward pick drop zones. It can also be applied to unit load pallet movement of materials to postponement/work order processing areas and from work order processing areas to staging. Replacement of pallet jacks for case picking with automated movement can be done via AGVs. AGVs can also be helpful in case and piece picking in which the goods are automatically delivered to stationary pick stations, transport of mix-SKU pallets from shrink wrap area to staging and automatic trailer loading and unloading.
Pottery industry – Ensure safety in material handling
Those associated with pottery industry have to deal with various materials which are poisonous. They are particularly dangerous in their raw form, but the danger is still there even after the pottery is fired. Some of the substances associated with pottery making include asbestos which can cause lung diseases such as mesothelioma in those who are exposed to it regularly, cadmium which can cause a variety of ailments, including respiratory problems, osteoporosis and cancer, carbon monoxide whose exposure can cause death in a short period of time, lead which can also cause a laundry list of health problems and is especially harmful to children, iron and Ferrous Sulfite which may cause vomiting, diarrhea and shock, especially in children, potassium dichromate or bichromate which can cause cancer and kidney failure, silica dust which, if inhaled repeatedly, can cause lung irritation or silicosis, which may be fatal and so on.
It is the duty of a potter to take proper precautions for his own safety and protection of those who enter his workspace or use his pottery. Some of the safety measures to be followed while handling pottery materials include:
Masks should be worn when spraying glazes. Dust mask should be worn when handling dry materials. When reducing or salt or soda firing, a gas mask should be worn.
Gloves should be worn when handling raw materials. Also hands should be washed frequently when working with pottery so as to avoid toxic substances remaining in contact with your skin.
Studios should be properly ventilated, especially when using a kiln.
Following these safety measures when handling pottery materials can go a long run in minimizing risks associated with poisonous pottery materials.
The science behind the working of hand trucks
Perhaps the most commonly used and the simplest of all material handling equipments, used in varied areas ranging from store rooms and warehouses to train stations and airports, is the hand truck also known as two wheeled dolly or sack truck. Though available in various designs and modifications, all the hand trucks are based around the same basic design.
The hand truck operates on the principle of lever with the effort being the person pushing the truck so that it can be applied with more force to another object and the load being the boxes pushed. Levers are still considered one the six simple machines, alongside wheels and axles, pulleys, inclined planes, wedges and screws.
The hand truck is a first class lever as the pivot or the fulcrum is located between input effort and output load and the lever swings about the pivot when force is applied in order to overcome the force of resistance on the opposite side. Hand trucks are designed to put the weight burden primarily on the wheels when in use, rather than on the user.
The idea that simple machines do not create energy, they just transform it, belongs to Galileo Galilei, who noted this is in Le Maccanicle in around 1600. Of course the idea of levers had been around long before Galileo. Archimedes of Syracuse is said to have had a great understanding of and belief in the lever.
Though hand trucks and similar material handling products are used every day by companies and other organizations throughout the world, but the physics behind it is rarely considered. The hand truck is an example of a basic lever that is still widely used today. Besides being environmentally friendly, they are cheaper, simple to use and durable.
The basic principles of material handling
When setting up a material handling system for your organization, there are certain principles which should be followed in order to get best results. These principles of material handling can be listed down as under:
Orientation Principle requires that when planning the material handling system, your organization should first review the existing system relationships, methods and problems, physical and economic constraints, and then future requirements and goals should be established accordingly.
Planning Principle says that the plan for all material handling and storage activities should be made considering the basic requirements, desirable options, and other contingencies.
Systems Principle lays down that all the systems of operation including receiving, inspection, storage, production, assembly, packaging, warehousing, shipping and transportation should be coordinated well in the material handling system.
Unit Load Principle advises that the products should be handled in the largest possible unit load.
Space Utilization Principle requires that every inch of space should be utilized with maximum productivity.
Standardization Principle says that wherever possible, the methods and equipments of material handling should be standardized.
Energy Principle lays down that when making comparisons and choices, energy consumption of the material handling systems and material handling procedures should also be considered.
The Green Principle emphasizes on the fact that Going green is the principle today. Therefore, while selecting material handling equipment and procedures, their effect on the environment should be considered.
Mechanization Principle says that the material handling process should be mechanized in areas where speed, efficiency, accuracy and economy in the handling of materials is needed.
Simplification Principle asks that organizations to simplify handling by eliminating, reducing, or combining unnecessary movements and/or equipment.
Safety Principle requires the units to ensure safety in material handling equipments and methods by following safety codes and regulations in addition to accrued experience.
Cost Principle says that before choosing a material handling system, one should compare the costs and economic effectiveness as measured by expense per unit handled.
These are the basic principles, if not the complete set of principles, which need to be followed when deciding a material handling equipment or a system for an organization so that maximum efficiency and benefit can be achieved.