Expediting air cargo overnight shipments
With ball matting on dock floor designed for air express cargo container shipments, a single worker can handle manually-and easily-an 8,000 lb container.
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 5/1/1999
To reach global customers from its DC near Sacramento, Calif., Hewlett-Packard sends out a lot of its outbound parts by air cargo, overnight services. The ordinary office mailroom operation for "overnights" looks like kids stuff, however, alongside HP's approach to expediting air shipments.Special loading dock areas-piers actually-were built for these overnight shipments. Two 17-ft by 55-ft dock areas have flooring that's all-weather-surfaced with "ball matting.'' Each area will hold 8 large air cargo containers- "AMJs" in industry jargon. A typical day's shipments from the DC will include 10 outbound AMJs.
The AMJs readily roll over the balls embedded into the matting (photo). This simple handling technology makes it easy for a single FedEx worker, for example, to maneuver an AMJ container weighing up to 8,000 lb as he or she fills it.
These dock areas also are equipped with FAA-certified air container scales. Containers are weighed at HP and then loaded by one of three lifts (hydraulic, scissors, or manual lift) onto the overnight service's truck.
Enroute to the airport, the truck driver phones in the weights of the AMJs so that the containers can go directly to a waiting jet aircraft. All paperwork is complete once the AMJ leaves HP's docks.
With weighing done at the DC, HP has another 10 minutes or so to load the containers than it would otherwise. "Every extra minute gained for loading is very valuable to us," says Alberg.
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