A typical warehouse spends 50% or more of its operational budget in the picking process. When a facility first looks to upgrade their systems, solving inefficiencies here usually offers its best return on investment.
One good solution for transporting goods through a warehouse or manufacturing facility – or, in fact, over nearly any distance – is a conveyor system. They have been a mainstay of material handling for more than a hundred years.
Today’s conveyors, however, are a little more advanced than those of a hundred years. With the right WMS, they can be an integral part of manufacturing, assembling, packaging, labeling, sorting, stacking, and shipping processes.
Figuring out whether or not – or which – conveyors are right for your business is a complex task. Making that decision takes in-depth familiarity with your systems and goals, as well as expert knowledge of modern material handling.
As an integrator of material handling solutions, at PeakLogix we strive to create partnerships between ourselves, our clients, and our manufacturers. None of us has all the answers, but by working together we can design a customized solution to meet your individual needs.
Omni Metalcraft Corp is an industry-leading manufacturer and supplier of conveyors, rollers, lifts, and their accessories. They’ve proven to be a valuable partner in customizing solutions that meet the exact specifications of our clients’ unique problems.
Image credit: Omni Metalcraft
Customized solutions for individual problems
Upgrading a facility is never as simple as plugging in the latest and most advanced automation. These systems – while impressive – are often so expensive that smaller businesses in particular might never see a return on a poorly chosen investment.
But at PeakLogix, we have seen how even small facilities can benefit from some degree of automation. The key is to find, during our discovery and data collection process, the bottlenecks, the slowdowns, or the places where too much money is being spent on maintenance, and to find the right solution to fix that problem.
Conveyors, while not always the best solution, are so effective that they are almost always at least worth considering, and so versatile that they are often integral parts of larger solutions. Their benefits include:
- Efficiency: Conveyors can be gravity fed – which requires no energy – or can run on as little as 24 volts. They can also run on demand, turning themselves off when not in use.
- Safety: While conveyor-related injuries happen, they usually involve hands or fingers being caught in nip or shear points. Properly guarding and controlling the conveyors can mitigate these risks. Forklifts, in contrast, are more likely to involve serious injuries, require the storage and maintenance of caustic batteries or fuels, and are more likely to damage product, as well.
- Versatility: Conveyors can be designed to meet your needs. They can have a small footprint and be installed nearly anywhere. They can be robust enough to handle 20’ long steel bars and the harsh environment of a foundry.
- Adaptability: Omni Metal Corp can design conveyors capable of handling pallets, drums, cases, totes, bags, glass, and more. Their conveyors can be designed as part of an automated system to do any number of tasks, including sortation, alignment, accumulation, stacking, and destacking.
From food-grade sanitation to foundry room floors
Omni Metalcraft Corp specializes in creating customized solutions that are right for our clients. Sometimes that means conveyors that meet food-grade sanitation levels, and sometimes it means withstanding the harsh environments of a foundry. It can mean palletizing, depalletizing, and everything in between.
