cult for companies to meet today’s demand to
get more products out the door faster than ever
before. Paying attention to how well your product is stored and how easily it can be accessed
goes a long way toward meeting that goal.
“Everyone is trying to come up with that
solution to get product to their customers
faster than anybody else,” explains Brian
Neuwirth, vice president of sales and market-
ing for Lakewood, N.J.-based storage solutions
maker Unex Manufacturing. “The greatest
opportunity for us in the material handling
world is coming up with unique outside-the-
box solutions that help them do that.”
Here’s a look at some creative ways compa-
nies are solving space problems and putting
more money to the bottom line.
GOING VERTICAL
About two years ago, Texas-based beer distributor Ben E. Keith Beverages embarked on
a project to add more storage capacity at its
Dallas warehouse. Using its existing three-pal-let-high storage layout would have required
adding 105,000 square feet to the Dallas facility’s footprint—a costly undertaking in both
construction and property usage. Management decided to
investigate alternate storage solutions that would minimize
property usage as well as future expenses.
After months of research, management at Ben E. Keith
Beverages decided to implement an automated vertical
storage solution. Operations teams reviewed several crane-and cart-based systems, and selected a cart-based system
from Automha Americas of Oakville, Ontario. The solution handles 14,400 pallets—or well over a million cases
of product—in 30,000 square feet, storing pallets on eight
levels. This preserved more than 70,000 square feet of
property for future growth, according to Paul Holton,
the division’s vice president of operations, and allowed
the company to build a more affordable facility that still
achieved its goals.
Ben E. Keith’s new storage system moves pallets through-
out a 92-foot-high warehouse by employing automated
pallet movers that travel along a roller system. A series of
elevators/lifters allow vertical access to eight storage levels,
where pallets are stored in high-density racking. In addition
to the building and property-value savings, the system has
also yielded productivity improvements; for instance, the
distributor was able to reassign employees to other tasks in
the warehouse.
“Had we built conventional storage, additional employ-
ees and equipment would have been needed,” Holton notes.
“Going vertical and automating the storage has reduced
shrinkage, damage, and travel time, and has created more
accurate inventory and improved safety.”
Holton says the improvements have set a new course for
the facility’s future.
“As additional storage is needed at this facility or any of
the Ben E. Keith Beverage facilities, automating the storage
will be the future,” Holton says.
INCREASING MOBILITY
Space constraints, combined with the need to optimize
resources, are boosting demand for mobile racking solutions in today’s warehouses as well, adds Jessup of Flexspace,
which offers mobile racking solutions through a partnership
with European company Storax. Mobile storage racks are
racking structures installed on powered bases that move laterally, pushing racks together in blocks and creating a single
aisle, as needed, for access to products. These high-density
storage solutions allow organizations to store more product
per square foot while also providing unobstructed access to
inventory. And they eliminate the need for multiple aisles
that take up valuable space in a facility. The system can be
fully or semi-automated.
“Mobile racking is the only solution that gives you 100
percent access to all product locations while also maximizing your footprint for storage,” explains Jessup. “With the
right storage system, you use your resources better—and
you also create labor efficiencies and increase productivity.”
Jessup illustrates his point with an example from the
manufacturing sector. Smith Corona, the former typewriter manufacturer that now makes a wide range of thermal
labels, was looking for a way to add production lines at
its Cleveland, Ohio, factory and warehouse—but space
was tight and expanding under existing conditions would
require purchasing an additional building. Instead, the
company implemented Storax mobile racking for storing
materials and converted the resulting freed-up space into
revenue-generating production lines. The end result was
an additional four production lines, which translates to a
30-percent increase in productivity. The company is working on a second installation of mobile racking to create even
more space, Jessup says.
