Topper Industrial is a leader in material handling cart delivery in North America. The growing trend of productions going fork truck free provides many benefits. It increased safety, quality assurance and flexibility just to name some.
For the last fifteen years, Topper Industrial has provided smaller, one off type of orders of material handling equipment to a local lighting manufacturer with good results. Internally, as time progressed the lighting company wanted to go lean with new equipment and streamline their production and produce more product at a faster, quality centric pace. They began assessing their current material handling processes and equipment and knew they could be more progressive. After their initial research, they eventually decided to seek out more information on tuggable cart systems.
The lighting company had not incorporated carts into their material movement process previously, so they needed to know more. They were aware that Topper Industrial specialized in industrial carts. Together, Topper Industrial’s team and the Safety, Lean and Production Management of the lighting company met. Topper was happy to explain more about the incorporation of Topper carts and additional material handling equipment. The conversation started with the different types of carts that are available and how they are used. Then, it was They noted that material could be moved within their current facility with carts and they collectively brainstormed other possibilities such as a re-arranged floor lay out and material pattern.
With cart delivery, there are two ways to handle material. You can deliver material on cart and then, work out of the cart or you can deliver product on a transfer cart and transfer the product to a workstation. After time and consideration, the lighting company decided to go with a Mother Daughter Cart concept that would work in their existing workflow pattern.
Mother Daughter Cart Systems are a tuggable cart system. The design consists of one large mother cart and two or more, smaller daughter carts. The daughter carts are designed to fit within the mother cart’s framework/ Once the daughter carts are locked inside, the mother cart and daughter carts are then able to be tugged as one. Multiple Mother Carts are linkable and can be towed in a row.
Mother Daughter carts are very versatile. That is why this system was chosen. The daughter carts can be all different types and sizes, while designed to utilize the same Mother Cart frame. This is especially beneficial in planning for the future. The company is then able to have flexibility in changing processes and procedures without major equipment change.
To further help the customer understand how cart delivery works, Topper Industrial put together a show and tell with another company that had incorporated Mother Daughter Carts already. The whole team visited the plant and watched and learned as the Mother Daughter Cart processed materials throughout a shift in the workday. They were very pleased with the system and the feedback.
By participating in this show and tell, the lighting company was able to see firsthand how easy it is to tug the Mother Daughter Cart system around the plant and focus on a Daughter Cart exchange.
They followed up by buying sample carts to test. The material handlers and tugger operators were the final buy in on the system.
Today, the lighting company is working on phase 3 of their lean, fork truck free journey. They invested close to 400K and have incorporated 3 Mother Carts and 380 Daughter Carts. Topper Industrial was able to create a universal sized daughter cart to hold any of the products on their production line. They have considerable ROI in less than 4 months of incorporation.
Not only have they seen huge savings but have not had a single safety incident since adding the carts. They were able to dramatically reduce their fork truck traffic. Lastly, they were able to set up one way traffic which helped with material flow and delivery timing the right part at the right time.
Topper Industrial has a great team of people working hard each day to create the most reliable and innovative material handling products for our customers. Combined with over 40 years of experience in the material handling industry, Topper’s team of highly skilled engineers, designers and skilled workers is especially equipped to design and build Industrial Carts (Mother / Daughter Cart Systems, Quad Steer Carts or Tracking Carts, Specialized Delivery Carts, Transfer Carts with Roller Deck, Static Carts, Rotation Carts, Tilt Carts or Kitting Carts), Industrial Cart Components (Cart Parts Department), Industrial Containers (Corrugated and Wire Mesh Containers), Pallets, Lift/Tilt Systems, Racking and Tube & Joint. Topper is very proud of the dedication each and every team member has for developing quality products for ever changing needs across the supply chain.
Topper’s team is eager to help create solutions for every customer’s material flow requirements. All customers quickly become part of the extended Topper family. Contact us today at sales@topperindustrial.com.