Once again, we were delighted to be approached by one of the UK’s big name retail brands to assist in an exciting new project to help improve picking and packing processes at their large training facility in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
Our sales manager Jonathan Ball, having worked on hundreds of warehouse optimisation upgrades during his 28-year career with Action Handling attended various site visits to assess the project. He was able to see first-hand the daily challenges experienced by the staff and to discuss with them the operational procedures with package storage and to also assess the packing areas in detail to work out how we could help them improve efficiencies.
The customer had decided to make a fresh start when looking at modern ways to improve their processes and had decided to seek our knowledge and expertise in order to create a waste free packaging area.
Designated packaging areas were previously used to place individual orders into tote boxes and then finalise the consignment ready for despatch. Although this process didn’t really take up much floor, in terms of its inefficiency it had a massive knock on effect on the rest of the production and warehouse areas, thereby contributing to higher associated business costs.
Action handling have worked on numerous packaging projects since the early 1970's and were well placed to help the customer optimise the packing area, reduce waste and utilise the minimum space to achieve this.
Jon Ball assessed that the customer needed to look at combining both packaging supplies and packaging systems. It now sounds obvious, but packers were having to leave their workstations, walk to the other side of the warehouse and pick the requisite packaging materials in order to pack the orders that were positioned on the totes beside their own workstations. After a morning of speaking to staff and supervisors, he was able to present the management with a full and precise proposal of the specific needs and understanding of the design criteria. Jon studied data on the flow patterns of orders, he then spent a further hour designing the basic concept for the all-purpose packaging workstation. This design would then place all the materials required for order fulfilment right at the point of the packer’s fingertips. With the additional new automated conveyor system, the whole business operation of the site was greatly enhanced.
In today’s high paced business world, it can often be so hard to see the wood from the trees, let alone the obvious process shortcomings. With notable improvements in websites, computers and telecommunications systems, good integration can enable us to get customer orders out of the door even quicker. Sometimes the investment in packing and despatch areas can be overlooked and may get somewhat left behind whilst playing catch-up with technology.
Basic Specification of packing benches supplied:
- 8 off medium duty packaging benches
- 1330mm long x 750mm wide x 750mm high overall height 1540mm
- 50mm x 25mm ERW frame
- Galvanised steel top and compartments
- Finish silver RAL9006
For regular Action Handling updates, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, Sign up to our monthly newsletter for company news and information.