Growing at rates of 20% to 30% annually, Industrial Scientific Corporation faced the prospect of having to build new manufacturing space. Instead, the Oakdale, Pa. company found that installing vertical carousels helped increase its storage capacity for parts and also improved their organization and ease of retrieval.

The manufacturer of gas detection systems looked at several materials handling options to solve its storage problem. Included were expanding its existing system of using mobile carts to supply parts to production, installing high bay storage, or trying an automated vertical carousel system.

Industrial Scientific chose the latter and arranged a pilot study with one carousel. Space savings were one benefit resulting from use of this technology that Vince Schreiner, production coordinator, and his crew determined. The 200 to 300 square feet of space required by mobile cart usage shrunk to just 67 square feet using the vertical carousel. Payback for this carousel also was achieved in less than a year.

Inventory control has improved, moreover. With a second carousel added to the original unit, here's how Industrial Scientific now operates: One carousel offers free and ready access to parts by all workers. It supports day-to-day manufacturing. A second carousel is equipped with software to monitor inventory. It counts numbers of parts in and parts out, and provides daily inventory control.

This system now lets Schreiner know when inventory of a single item is down to the last unit. That tracking feature gives him ample time to respond.

The carousel software also supports running two assembly lines at the same time. One line is for high-volume production while a second line is for prototyping and limited production runs.

The two carousels together store over 1,000 different part numbers with a total part count between 6 million and 10 million pieces at any one time.

With free access to parts by workers, manufacturing changeovers are far easier and quicker. During a typical day, a line might change over three or more times. "Setups that traditionally took 4 hours are reduced to about 20 minutes," says Bob Reese, lead technician. "That's efficiency."

Industrial Scientific has been so satisfied with its first two carousels that it installed three more systems in other departments. These added carousels help relieve pressures in other departments at Industrial Scientific. One of these additional vertical carousels, for example, supports the work cell where operators manufacture stationary, gas detector products. And another carousel is used in the post assembly area, housing kitted parts and providing a general storage capability.

Adjustability of these carousels and their capability to provide storage flexibility has been a key advantage, says Schreiner. "We didn't have to permanently weld storage shelves. We could adapt the unit configuration to our ongoing needs." That's been a critical factor because four of the five systems have been adjusted for various reasons.

Hanel Storage Systems
412-787-3444
www.hanelus.com