Material Handling Integration requires experience and a high degree of application knowledge in order to select the right components. The sum of the distribution centers parts should always be more than its parts.
There are a multitude of questions that you have to ask yourself. How you integrate, where and how your product is stored, where you store it, how you store it and how you pick it all have an impact on the efficiency of your system. Whether you choose to store whole pallets, cases or pieces should be analyzed by someone who canrecommend the best option. And how you pick those SKU’s all need to be looked at closely. In addition, you maybe able to discover efficiency by storing different SKU’s in different ways.
It is not only the way that you store and pick your products that influences how well you warehouse operates. How you move your products between the different modules in your warehouse has a big effect on your distribution center.
For instance, take the conveyors used. In one distribution center you can have case conveyor, pallet conveyor, chain conveyor and gravity conveyor all feeding different parts of your operation.
There might be three different categories of conveyor; one capable of handling a single piece, another to transport cases and a third capable of conveying a pallet. All the conveyors have different design criteria and specifications. The conveyors might need to be integrated with other operations that take place while the product is being conveyed such as weighing, scanning, labeling etc.
Material handling Integration can get very complicated very quickly. That is why you need to make sure that the company you chose for your material handling integration is experienced in all the aspects from design to installation.
Contact ABCO Systems today and see how we can help you with your distribution center project.