Storing and picking parts with a manual racking system can be a costly business. At Wiese USA in Indianapolis, a material handling company, ENGINEERING.com took a peek at how a Modula system can greatly improve work-floor efficiency and reduce costs.
Before using Modula, the team at Wiese USA operated at about 40 percent of its floor space taken up by storage devices and materials. With Modula, the team need only dedicate five percent of its floor space to storage.
"By far there is an advantage to (Modula) because in the traditional way of pulling parts, the picker had to move from location to location throughout the warehouse, wherever those parts may be housed," said Brian Ford, regional parts and inventory specialist with Wiese USA. "With the Modula unit, you stand in one place and it brings the parts to you one at a time, so there's definitely a time savings not having to transition across the warehouse for every order."
In the past, parts pickers would use a picking ticket or a pick list to compare part numbers and SKU numbers with perhaps a box on a shelf. Modula systems simplify this tedious process, generating picking tickets and providing features to identify the correct parts needed every time.
An LED bar across the front of the machine indicates what row the part is in and its part number. The Modula system's display panel gives you the same visual reference, highlighting the cell to show where the part's drawer is located. This helps ensure you receive the right parts you need.
The Modula Lift system affords serious time savings for facilities with large floors and too many storage systems to sift through. Pickers will no longer tire themselves out running around for difficult searches.
Training with the Modula system is as easy as having a Modula rep visit the shop and walk you through the process. "The Modula people came in, did the training with us on day one and we were up and running," said Ford.
To learn more about Modula Lift Systems, visit modula-us.com.
Modula has sponsored this post. They have no editorial input to the content-all opinions are mine. Jim Anderton