Keeping the Stockroom on Track in Less Floor Space
Founded in 1961, Plasser American Corp. continues to serve the nation's freight railroads and high speed intercity and commuter systems. The product line includes an entire range of Plasser & Theurer machines designed to maintain, straighten, and strengthen existing railroads and transit systems, keeping them running at top speed.
Numerous machines have been developed and adapted specifically for North American railroad and transit system conditions. Plasser is actively engaged in all sectors of research, design, production, and customer service, bringing the highest standard of quality to the market.
The Chesapeake, VA facility focuses on manufacture of new machinery, as well as overhaul and upgrade services to extend the useful working life of machines, providing customers the benefit of the latest technologies and developments without the new price tag. The 35,000 sq ft stockroom inventories over $16 million in spare parts.
With steady market growth and production operations at capacity, Plasser needed to expand production capacity to grow sales. With pressure on multiple areas of the facility to reduce their footprint, Kardex REmstar worked with the company to replace the stockroom's sizable 2 story mezzanine bin system with 8 Shuttle VLMs integrated with pick-to-light technology and FastPic inventory management software.?
The original stockroom consisted of a 2 story mezzanine bin system with 19,000 sq ft of shelving occupying 4,875 sq ft of floor space. With each VLM measuring just over 9 ft wide and 10 ft deep, the new stockroom with 8 VLMs and a pick area in the center now occupies only 1,440 sq ft of floor space -- a 70% floor space savings.
Accuracy, Traceability, and Counting
With 18,000 SKUs in inventory, finding the right part can be challenging, but not at Plasser. The pick accuracy level has increased from 98 to 99.7%.
"We attribute our increase in pick accuracy to the pick-to-light technology and our labeling process at receiving," says Daniel Boone, quality manager. As parts are received into the stockroom and put away, they are labeled with a bar code that identifies the part number and receipt number.
Upon retrieval, a pick-to-light TIC (transaction information center) directs the operator to the exact location of the part displaying the quantity and part number to be picked.
"When the part is pulled from inventory we can easily identify it with the information on the bar code," says Boone.
Year-end inventory count was a tedious task in the mezzanine bin system, requiring walking up and down the stairs from part location to part location to do a physical count. Now using the FastPic5 inventory management, software parts are presented to the operator for counting, eliminating time spent walking and searching for the part location. The stockroom reported a $500 Shuttle VLM inventory variance at the end of last year; only 0.01% in misplaced inventory!
"Now cycle counting takes us half of the time," says Boone.
Positive Pressure
"We don't measure success by the number of shipments but by getting the right part to the right place at the right time in a usable condition," says Boone. "That's success!" Each Shuttle VLM is fitted with a dehumidifying unit to keep the parts inside preserved and clean. The dehumidifier controls the air within each unit and adds positive pressure.?When the shutter doors open to deliver a tray, clean air blows out of the unit, preventing dirty air from entering the unit.
Productivity and Ergonomics
With order volume and SKU count remaining the same, Plasser is picking with 20% less labor.
"Since the parts are delivered to the operator for picking, our pick time per part has decreased, allowing us to pick the same number of orders with less labor," says Boone. The manual stockroom required 10 people while the new automated stockroom requires only 8 people.
The new system is also easier on the employees. The previous mezzanine system required workers to travel up and down stairs to store and retrieve parts. Once at the location, workers were often required to bend down low or reach up high to access the part. If the parts were on the second level, workers had to hand carry them down to the first floor.
"Certainly worker ergonomics was a concern for us when considering a new system," says Boone. Using the VLMs, all parts are delivered to the operator in an ergonomically positioned access opening, providing improved worker ergonomics.
Old System vs New
In the old system the stockroom was split into two sections, with the front section storing smaller parts and the back section, larger parts. Using a list of printed labels, a worker would travel through the mezzanine bin shelving to each part location, collecting the parts required. Generally one worker picked one order at a time, but larger orders could be picked by two people by simply dividing up the labels. In that case, one worker picked the small parts and one worker picked the large parts, meeting at shipping to combine the parts into one order.
The new stockroom inventories 18,000 SKUS; 13,000 are stored in the VLM while the remaining 5,000 SKUs, consisting mostly of large items, are stored in bulk shelving. Orders are still demand generated. Customer orders are created in the system by the parts department and production orders are created in the system by production planning. All orders are downloaded to the FastPic5 inventory management system for fulfillment.
The VLM operator can view all orders in the inventory management system but only fulfills an order when the pick labels for that order are delivered. When an order is ready for fulfillment, the pick labels are delivered to both the VLM area and the bulk area. On average, 60% of the picking activity is in the VLM area.
On the VLM operator's command, the order begins to process and the Shuttle VLMs move to retrieve the parts required for that order. Using a cart, the operator travels from VLM to VLM picking the parts required for the order. Pick labels are attached to each part as it is picked and added to the order. When complete, the order waits at the VLM area for additional parts from the bulk area and then is picked up by shipping or production.
Production Expands
Additional materials were consolidated into the recovered floor space previously occupied by the stockroom, allowing production to expand and grow capacity.
"A mandated floor space reduction for a production expansion turned out to improve the overall efficiency of the stockroom. It's a win - win!" says Boone.
Kardex Remstar, LLC, a company of the Kardex Group, provides automated storage and retrieval systems for manufacturing, distribution, warehousing, offices, and institutions.
