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If your supply chain issues include the need to improve fulfilment cycle
times, reduce product defects and damage, introduce Kanban or modern
material handling and storage systems, reduce operator safety incidents,
introduce new product lines, reduce warehouse costs and transform
customer service then Welconstruct Customer Solutions can help you make
the leap to lean manufacturing, warehousing and distribution centre
management.
The result - highly motivated people, a more responsive and flexible
supply chain and lower overall costs.
Carton Packaging Manufacturer
Huge benefits are now being realised by a major carton packaging
manufacturing plant, following installation of a new fully automated
conveyor, sortation and palletising system by Welconstruct Customer
Solutions.
Welconstruct Customer Solutions was chosen by the award winning
packaging company to develop the solution and manage the installation of
the entire packaging plant. The £600,000 investment has a payback of 2-3
years.
Whereas all cartons were once labelled, wrapped, palletised, then
offloaded manually, the operation is now fully computer controlled,
involving 50% less labour and is capable of handling up to 800 boxes per
hour.
All output is automatically bar code labelled and transferred via an
incline powered belt conveyor to a space saving mezzanine floor level.
Here product is systematically sorted, through use of a bar code
scanner, into one of eight lanes of an accumulating powered roller
conveyor network.
Boxes are then routed, by means of a curved conveyor bend, down a
straight powered roller section onto a belt and roller decline conveyor.
This feeds them directly to the palletising station at ground level. An
override facility exists allowing cartons to bypass the automated
system, in order to be palletised manually, should the need ever arise.
For added flexibility Welconstruct Customer Solutions introduced a
multi-position palletiser that enables eight pallets to be loaded almost
simultaneously. When a single pallet becomes full, it is ejected onto a
powered turntable, allowing another empty pallet to be automatically fed
into position. The full pallet is then fed down a conveyor to the
stretch-wrapping, banding and auto-labelling stations.
Safety is always a major consideration in process automation solutions.
Finished pallets pass through a fire door en route to the despatch bay,
where an inductive loop has been installed in the floor to ensure that
the section of the conveyor here is at a standstill during any forklift
unloading procedure. Control panels at both upper and lower levels
provide a complete overview of the operating status of the entire
system, and management have the capability to override the system at any
time.
Installed during nights and weekends to minimise disruption, the new
system is meeting the client's performance parameters. The Production
Finishing Manager concludes: "Welconstruct Customer Solutions was very
proactive throughout the design and implementation stages in helping to
resolve our handling problems. As a result we are already realising the
efficiency and productivity gains required to maintain our
competitiveness within the marketplace."
Bosch UK Ltd - Denham - Uxbridge
With a requirement to distribute 12 million individual items per month
Bosch UK Ltd turned to Welconstruct to provide supply chain assistance.
Welconstruct provided a complete fulfilment system at the 16,600 sq m
facility, including shelving, racking, a mezzanine floor and a state of
the art automated conveyor system.
The facility contains over 49,000 different lines which are stored on
Welconstruct pallet racking and shelving, on both floors of the
facility. The conveyor control system integrates with Bosch's host
computer and is supplied with the information needed for each pick. The
pick list is placed in a bar coded tote and released into the system.
As a tote passes a bar code reader at the start of each picking zone, a
decision is made by the system as to whether to allow it into the zone
or not. If the zone is busy it will move on to the next, to return to
the former zone later in the pick.
When a tote enters a picking zone, the pick attaches it to a specially
designed trolley and picks items from the racking and shelving. Each
item is scanned as it is picked in order to update Bosch's host
computer. At the end of the pick, the tote is routed automatically to
the picking area ready for dispatch.
Bespoke computer screens enable the operators to easily determine the
status of the pick, efficiency of each zone, the pick rates and pick
times, ensuring efficient stock control and order fulfilment.
Screwfix Direct Ltd - Leicester and Yeovil
Screwfix Direct Ltd, a company specializing in the supply of products to
DIY enthusiasts and to the building trade, has streamlined it operations
at its new distribution facility in Leicester, with the introduction of
a new conveyor system from Welconstruct.
As the new facility deals with more than 3000 orders a day, it is vital
that stock levels are maintained efficiently. Speed of response is also
fundamental, as phone and internet orders are normally delivered the
next working day.
Screwfix appointed Welconstruct to provide a conveying solution which
would meet these requirements.
Having worked with Screwfix at their operations centre in Yeovil,
Welconstruct were able to draw from previous experience. They installed
a system where products destined to replenish stocks are placed in bar
coded tote bins, and transported around the facility by powered roller
conveyors. The conveyor system software reads the bar codes and
interfaces with the screwfix host computer to identify the finished
location for the delivery of the tote bin.
The products are then placed in live storage racking from where order
pickers manually select the items they need. In addition to the main
stock replenishing conveyor, Welconstruct installed roller conveyors for
the packing lines, the packing benches (featuring roller balls for easy
product manoeuvre), and racking which accommodates packaging materials
and PC terminals.
Martin Brickell, Screwfix Leicester Site Manager, commented "Screwfix
have achieved phenomenal growth year on year, so the reliability of our
systems is vital. The Leicester system is as far as possible a mirror
system of Yeovil because it is a system which we knew we could trust."
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