Conveyor Handling Has Given Many Businesses a Competitive Advantage

Conveyor handling has given many businesses a competitive advantage, by allowing them to free up the work time of their skilled employees. This time can then be spent on the productive activity for which the worker was employed in the first place. There are many varieties of conveyor handling systems, and many different types of goods and materials which can be moved with them. This includes waste material, which is commonly transported for disposal using mechanized conveyor systems. Although there will always be an initial expense to install these systems, they will pay this expense back through every day they continue to function. The use of conveyor handling which most people are familiar with is on the tills at a supermarket, and this is a good illustration of how useful these systems can be. If you observe a till operator on a conveyor belt system, you will see that the next batch of items to be processed arrive at the till before the previous batch has even been dealt with. This means that there is no time lost between batches being processed. Translate this into a manufacturing process in a factory, and think how much more productive a worker can be when there is no waiting from one batch of work to the next. Conveyor handling also eliminates the need for goods to be physically carried from one place to the next. This would be total waste of resources if it was done by a skilled worker, and even if unskilled labor was brought in specially to carry out this work, it would still result in an ongoing expense to the company. By automating the operation, the time of a skilled worker is used as efficiently as possible. Of course, there is an initial expense for setting the operation up, and this can vary considerably. Conveyor handling offers many choices of drive system and method of operation. The cheapest option is a gravity based system which will need no electrical input. This is only possible when the goods need transporting over a short distance, and works ideally when there is a severe drop from one level to the next. A flat surface can be negotiated by manual operation, but this slightly defeats the purpose of a mechanical conveyor. If you need an electrically powered conveyor system, you have an almost limitless range of choices. Don't forget to factor in the inevitable expense of servicing and maintenance, which will be cheaper if you choose a local supplier. A conveyor which has open rollers, as opposed to a belt driven system, will be easier to maintain. You will even be able to keep the system going when parts are being repaired. A roller based system gives you the most versatile and easy to manage form of conveyor handling. Source: conveyorstuff.prufe.net