Report Productivity
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 4/1/2000
When Modern Materials Handling created these awards in 1991, productivity was in a dismal state. Not only were year-to-year gains slim, but it seemed as if American industry couldn' t get out of its own way.
Through somewhat gritted teeth, we initially cheered annual productivity gains of a little more than 2%. While low, those gains were certainly an improvement over the miniscule gains we experienced in the late 1980s. In fact, it was because of such pasty performances and the belief that things could get better, especially with the help of materials handling, that we created these awards.
Things have certainly changed. During the 90s, overall manufacturing productivity increased a compounded total of 47%. That is a significantly stronger advance than the roughly 30% gains in each of the previous three decades. And for 1999 alone, productivity in the industrial sector increased at 6.4%, the largest annual gain since 1971.
Materials handling has certainly had a hand in the steady improvement of those numbers. Just look at the following pages and the stories behind the success of this year' s winners of the Modern Materials Handling Productivity Awards :
Manufacturing Excellence - Gillette Inc., Boston, Massachusetts
Warehousing Excellence - Sanford Inc., Shelbyville, Tennessee
Distribution Excellence - Mikasa Inc., Charleston, South Carolina
These companies were selected by our Editorial Advisory Board for their outstanding performance in five areas:
1) Customer service as practiced both internally and externally
2) The capability to respond quickly to changing market conditions
3) The flexibility to alter operations in order to respond to unplanned events
4) The ability to deliver consistently the right item to the right destination at the right time
5) A clearly demonstrated ability to improve overall operations.
All warehousing, distribution, and manufacturing companies featured in Modern Materials Handling during 1999 were candidates for the awards. And all showed significant gains in operational efficiencies with the use of materials handling equipment, systems, and related software.
We congratulate this year' s winners for what they have done for their companies and for what they have done to help raise productivity in this country to the unprecedented levels it now enjoys.
Gillette
Manufacturing excellence
Designed as a self-contained village, Gillette' s South Boston Manufacturing Center has everything it needs to produce 5-billion razor blades each year. Not only are razors and blades assembled there, but plastic components are molded and metal parts stamped on site in this 1.5-million sq. ft. facility.
The materials handling system consists of a fleet of 18 automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) and a newly installed automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS).
Designed to provide products and materials just-in-time as they are needed for manufacturing, the system gives greater control, takes materials handling duties out of human hands, provides quality assurance, and has eliminated 14 handling steps associated with storage in an off-site warehouse.
The plant consists of two sections - a component area that manufactures the plastic and metal parts used in the products, and an assembly area that produces the finished razors and blades. All materials handling operations are highly integrated.
The AGVs service over 400 possible addresses on the factory as they travel on 8,000 ft. of guidepath. When a razor cartridge assembly machine runs low on materials, it sends an order message to the AGV control system to retrieve materials from either the plastic molding machines, the metal stamping units, or storage in the AS/RS.
The system works like a taxi service. The first thing it does is look to see if a vehicle coming from the component area has already picked up the type of parts needed. If so, it immediately dispatches the AGV to the assembly unit. If not, it sends an AGV to a component production machine or the AS/RS to pick up the needed parts. The goal is to keep assembly machines constantly stocked with materials.
About 50% of materials flow directly from the component machines to assembly units. Gillette hopes to increase that amount as much as possible to eliminate in-between handling.
The AS/RS primarily stores finished components waiting for assembly operations. The 90 ft. high system contains three 230 ft. aisles. It has 7,020 double deep storage locations that are normally about 80% full.
Raw steel for blades and some of the bulk resin for the plastic molding machines are also stored in the AS/RS. The control system uses first-in/first-out picking from storage as a way of turning over stock. It updates every movement so that inventory can be located at anytime.
The upgrade has been extremely reliable for Gillette with cycle counts nearing 100%.
When just-in-time works at its best, there is a very close shave between component need and fulfillment.
Gillette, South Boston Manufacturing Center - Boston, MA
Product MANUFACTURED:
Razors and blades
AGVs and AS/RS: HK Systems, 414-860-6778
Sanford
Warehousing excellence
With storage for 170-million writing instruments, Sanford' s new 285,000 sq. ft. distribution center does the job of three older warehouses. The maker of well-known brands such as Sharpie permanent markers and Uni-ball pens ships up to 40,000 cartons daily from the facility with 99.95% accuracy. Productivity has increased 65% over the former warehouses as well.
The facility is on track to achieve its cost justification objective of payback in 2 years. Sanford's three business units are served from the facility with improved labor efficiency, state of the art technology, and judicious use of sortation conveyors.
Other materials handling systems at Sanford include: warehouse management software (WMS); rack, shelving, and mezzanine systems; 2.5 miles of conveyor; high-speed sortation; bar code scanning and radio frequency data communication (RFDC) terminals; pick-to-light systems; and in-line scales.
Separate warehouse areas are set aside for pallet picking, case picking, and open case picking with the WMS directing paperless order filling. Bar code scanning and RFDC terminals allow exchange of data in real time. The WMS knows the location of every pallet, carton, or item within the facility.
Pick-to-label is used to fill full case and pallet load orders. The WMS prints a shipping label for each case to be picked in a batch-picked mode. LED displays and beacon lights in pallet flow and carton flow racks direct workers to the proper pick locations.
Fast-moving broken case picks are managed by pick-to-light systems while the RF terminals send order information to pickers for slow-moving broken case items, non-conveyables, and full pallets.
Sanford also does batch picking for customers such as Office Max and Office Depot. These chains require orders to be prepared individually for the approximately 600 stores each owns. Sanford set aside put-to-light areas to stage these store-bound orders.
With manufacturing sites nearby in Shelbyville and Lewisburg, TN, Sanford is situated to reach two-thirds of its customers with two-day or less shipping from the new DC. The facility was also designed for expansion to four times its current size, while materials handling systems can expand in three directions, including up.
Sanford, Distribution Center - Shelbyville, TN
Products distributed:
Writing instruments, such as permanent markers, ball-point pens, highlighters, dry erase markers, erasers, and art products
Systems integrator/mezzanines:
American Handling, 216-476-3000
Bin shelving:
Borroughs Corp., 616-342-0161
Rack Systems:
Unarco Material Handling, 615-384-3531
Conveyors:
Hytrol Conveyor, 870-935-3700
Conveyor controls:
Serra Systems, 707-433-5104
Warehouse management system:
Data Control Systems, 908-756-2000
Bar code scanners:
Accu-Sort Systems, 215-723-0981
RF terminals:
Symbol Technologies, 516-563-2400
Scales:
Ramsey Technology, 612-783-2500;
Metler-Toledo, 614-438-4972
Carton erectors:
Durable Packaging Corp., 708-387-2253
Carton sealers: 3M, 800-722-5463
Loading dock systems:
Rite-Hite, 414-355-2600
Stretchwrappers:
Lantech/Unisource, 502-267-4200
Mikasa
Distribution excellence
If one word could describe Mikasa' s new distribution center in Charleston, SC, it is flexibility. The facility is designed with a high degree of automation, well-suited to handle Mikasa' s line of dinnerware, crystal, glassware, and flatware.
There are 13 miles of conveyor, a very dense storage area, a well conceived pick and pack operation, an efficient sortation system, and a high degree of redundancy for all of it. All is designed to handle fragile product without leaving pieces of broken glass all over the floor.
Most product is shipped from overseas to at the Port of Charleston. From there, it is trucked to the DC where it is cubed, weighed, and staged on slave pallets for putaway. Lift operators pick up the slave pallets and drop them at pick-up/delivery stations adjacent to a 38-aisle high-bay storage area.
Fourteen trans-stacking storage /retrieval trucks (SRTs) travel these aisles doing both putaway and picking. Each truck has a double shuttle to handle two slave pallets at a time.
Picking at Mikasa is performed by wave, with the wave composed of all the orders scheduled for fulfillment that day. Most full-carton picks from the high-bay area are completed by the SRTs. A five-level mezzanine for fast moving cartons is also sandwiched into the high-bay. Items here are picked to belt.
A good example of the facility' s flexibility is the fast active zone, which holds the top 750 stock keeping units (SKUs) in each wave that require more than one master carton of open-stock picking. Stock in this area will vary from day to day depending on orders.
Other open-stock SKUs are stored in shelving. In both areas, the WMS directs picking into totes on wheeled carts. The totes are next sent to a pick and pack operation where loose products are wrapped and identified with a bar code label before being sent on to two tilt tray sorters.
About 2,500-3,000 items are handled hourly by the sorters, which have chutes designed to protect the delicate glassware pieces as they accumulate. Workers place all of the items into a carton that is then sent on to a packaging area. A sliding shoe sorter diverts the 16,000-20,000 cartons that flow from the facility daily to three shipping areas designed for parcel delivery, Mikasa' s own retail stores, and wholesale orders.
Mikasa, Distribution Center - Charleston, SC
Product distributed:
Tableware, glassware, dinnerware,
table settings and accessories
System integrator:
SDI, 818-890-6002
Conveyors and shipping sorter:
Buschman, 513-881-5329
Empty carton conveyor:
Jervis B. Webb, 248-553-1220
Trans-stacking storage/retrieval trucks:
Raymond, 800-235-7200
High bay storage racks:
Frazier Industrial Co., 908-876-3001
Warehouse management system:
Manhattan Associates, 770-955-5533
RFDC scanners:
Symbol Technologies, 516-783-4915
CUBING AND WEIGHING SYSTEMS:
Quantronix., 801-451-7000
Fixed scanners:
PSC/Laserdata, 800-843-2700
In-line scales:
Ramsey Technology, 612-783-2500
In-line labeling:
Veri-code Systems, 630-515-8020
Bulk label printers:
Monarch Marking Systems, 513-865-2123
Foam packaging system:
Sealed Air Corp., 203-791-3550
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