Fastest Growing Trend in Material Handling: Cart Delivery

October 25, 2018 Fork Truck Free Info 3595 Views

 

Cart delivery is the fastest growing trend in the material handling industry and will grow more than 10 percent year over year (YoY) for the next five years. The primary factors driving this growth rests with the fact that cart delivery serves as a safer and more productive alternative to a fork truck saturated material flow.
There are many added benefits when implementing cart delivery moving towards a fork truck free environment. Products must meet the metrics of takt times and productivity while simultaneously remaining defect-free.
The implementation of lean principles allows manufacturers the ability to remove wasteful processes; manufacturing including lineside delivery is a strong instigator of cart delivery solutions. Manufacturers recognize refining processes affecting the assembly line is no longer optional, but rather the next step in best-practice process improvement.

From raw materials replenishment to work in process transport, cart delivery is integral in efficiently accomplishing finished goods removal as well as lineside deliveries pulled from a variety of outlets depending on the material flow of the operation.
Cart delivery is particularly valuable in kitting, the process of grouping component parts together for delivery to the line-side without the need to assemble them. It is the packaging of components to create a new parent with no assembly required. Sequencing is important to the kitting process when kits consist of sequenced parts, which are non-common parts with unique characteristics distinguished by the model, size, or color of the end item in which they are to be included. Kits are assembled onto kit carts that are often specifically-engineered for the kits they will deliver. Customized kitting processes help streamline manufacturing and assembly activities, resulting in cost savings from reduced material handling, space requirements, and congestion with ease-of-use at the point of consumption. Topper Industrial is known as the industry leader by carefully engineering line-side storage locations, storage volumes, parts presentation, and delivery methods.
Each cart is designed and built for specific material handling methods to minimize travel time and increase material flow while reducing traffic, congestion, and improving safety.
Cart delivery optimizes the flow path and material delivery routes to make picking simple. Parts are location-coded and stored-based on usage and in picking order while locations are designated for shortest delivery to the line. Standard parts that are used in all end items are separated from specific parts (model/size/color), and similar parts for different end items are stored in separate locations.

Topper Industrial works closely with the lean consultants to design and create unique material handling equipment per application that encourages the implementation of “lean material flow” techniques. The primary waste reduction opportunity lies in reduction of size of the operation’s forklift fleet and the scope of a planned conveyor system, in favor of other tools carrying materials at designated intervals on repetitive paths to production.

While the fork truck is not going to vanish any time soon, the rapid growth of cart delivery rests in the operational awareness that the forklift and pallet model is a poor fit to the repeatable flow of items between the same locations. Pushcarts or trains of two (or more) carts traveling on fixed routes at fixed intervals, like a subway system, can predictably, efficiently, and effectively pick up and drop off quantities of materials that are usually less than full pallet loads, provide a less expensive, more reliable, and more predictive system with quantifiable bottom-line impacts.

 

About Topper Industrial

For more than twenty years, Topper Industrial, (www.topperindustrial.com) has been a leading manufacturer of material handling carts and equipment solutions. Topper Industrial designs and builds industrial delivery carts, cart lifts, lifts & tilts, material handling racks, steel containers, casters, tube & joint and industrial cart parts & components. Topper Industrial specializes in services to Manufacturing, Fulfillment, Warehousing and the Distribution Sectors. Topper Industrial’s services include, but are not limited to: Design & customization, manufacturing & production, site analysis & planning and  implementation justification. Topper’s material handling solutions make delivering material line side more effective through more efficient practices.

Topper Industrial is a proud member of MHI. Follow on Twitter @TopperInd or on LinkedIn.

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