One of our long-standing customers wanted to revamp their export department. They asked us to put forward some ideas on how they could speed up the packing and despatch process which seemed to be taking longer than was preferable. We sent along our man Jon Ball, with a stop clock, tape measure and 25 years plus of knowledge in the materials handling industry to have a look.
Jon found that the export orders are separate to the UK home orders and sent along a giant conveyor system that allows the products to be individually picked by the operators. They are then sent on in a large plastic tote bin down another conveyor until they arrive at what is called the 'flow through desk area'. The export team then pack the goods and ensure that they are ready to be despatched to their destinations.
It all sounds very simple of course until Jon observed that the products in question vary considerably in physical size and weight, so a multitude of different packing materials wre needed to be able to cope with all of the variances. A combination of standard packing materials from paper, cardboard, boxes, jiffy bags and strapping are all used for this purpose. It was found that this is where most time was lost during the exercise, mainly due to the different packing materials not being immediately to hand, as and when required.
We proposed that some central packing workstations would help to assist for a far quicker process for the export team. We started to look at some of the standard packing stations available but quickly concluded that a bespoke bench would be required to be able to cope with all the packing materials that are needed for the task.
A sample packing workstation was initially produced for evaluation. After a few minor tweaks, nine further units were produced that are now currently providing our customer with a much more streamlined packing process, resulting in the faster production of orders being despatched to their customers.
The benches measured 1500 x 900 x 860mm high and are constructed from rolled steel hollow sections infilled with 3mm mild steel sheet. The top surface is made from stainless steel sheet that gives the user a more frictionless way of moving the goods around the bench and provides a better wearing material than timber or mild steel. This is also fitted with an upturned lip surround 50mm high to stop boxes falling off. There is also a 400mm computer shelf, again with the same 50mm lip. The whole bench has been finished in the company colours with an epoxy powder coating in colour red RAL300.
A simple time and motion study provided us with the information that was needed to demonstrate that the use of effective bespoke materials handling equipment can usually provide the answer if a standard product cannot. The whole project took 6 weeks from the start of the first visit through to the supply of all units.
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