Ever since 1974, Hampton Casting has been pouring hot metals at its plant in Virginia. But a long history in Hampton, Va. hardly means that management is set in the ways it runs manufacturing. Or how it supports those efforts with materials handling systems and equipment.

Continuous improvement is a key competitive tactic. Recent changes in materials handling technologies at the plant demonstrate this approach. They show inventive ways to relieve a space crunch. They also underscore Hampton Casting's push to further improve ergonomics and safety in handling. Together, they help keep the company at the top of its game, fired up to cope with demand.

New storage systems optimize cube utilization at an older plant where space is at a premium. Included are three kinds of high-density systems. There's a new narrow-aisle (NA) pallet rack, which is served by man-up turret truck, for example. The NA system benefits raw materials receiving through greater capacity and capability. Five vertical lift modules (VLMs) improve efficiency and inventory control in a new central stores facility. Meanwhile, one other VLM unit now used in manufacturing cuts parts-retrieval time by two-thirds and reduces damage by half. Adding more VLMs for point-of-use supply on the plant floor seems likely. Finally, double-deep pushback rack in central stores packs pallet loads compactly in a small footprint.

Already big on overhead handling in manufacturing - more than 400 crane/hoist units help perform lifting and positioning jobs - Hampton Casting has further invested in overhead cranes. Recently, it also has installed several types of manipulators for improved ergonomics and safety. And new conveyors replace more manual means of moving work-in-process loads.

Many of these handling technologies were selected and installed with the help of a systems integrator (New Dominion Equipment Company, www.ndec.com).

Standing pat works for some poker hands. But it isn't the way to winning at Hampton Casting. Continuous improvement is. "As our business grows," says Dale Berkley, receiving manager, "we are constantly in a developmental phase. We always experiment with new methods of managing materials.

"The volume and velocity of materials flowing through the operation," he adds, "challenges us to find the best means of storing and distributing materials to the plant floor."

There's another, related challenge. After operating more than a quarter of a century at the same site, Hampton Casting is running out of room to grow as its business expands.

"Our biggest issue is space constraints," says Berkley. Adds David Hearn, materials manager, "It means we are required to find handling equipment and systems that optimize our use of the allotted space."

That requires planning at Hampton Casting, which is a Howmet Corporation facility and a business unit of Alcoa. The plant manufactures complex alloy airfoils for the industrial gas turbine industry and structural components for the aerospace industry. It does so by the investment casting process.

With world demand for energy production increasing, Hampton Casting "has been in a tremendous growth mode for the last five years," explains Hearn. Employment has risen to 1,800 now. The plant maintains a 24/7 operation that occupies 450,000 square feet. Customers include General Electric, Alstom Power, Pratt and Whitney, and Siemens/Westinghouse.

One response to planning for growth has been a major emphasis on maximizing use of vertical space. "We went up higher toward the ceiling," says Hearn, pointing to a number of new vertical lift modules (VLMs) now operating in several areas of the plant.

Within central stores, for example, there are two models of VLMs with capacities of 1,100 pounds or 550 pounds per tray, or total storage capacities of 132,000 pounds or 99,000 pounds for each model, respectively. The VLMs have a small footprint and hold trays measuring about 99 inches wide by 25 inches deep. Heights between trays are adjustable.

At 24-1/2 feet tall, these VLMs are taller than the vertical carousels (20 feet high) previously used at the plant for similar purposes. That extra height factor further enhances cube utilization.

According to Hearn, "durability and functionality also were factors in our selection of VLM technology. The beauty of vertical lift module technology is that only the extractor unit moves within the storage system. You do not wear out the whole machine over time."

The VLMs also provide flexibility for future changes in the materials stored within them, as Berkley points out. Because the trays within the VLMs are adjustable, they can be fitted to hold stored items of different sizes. On the trays are corrugated divider systems that help organize tray contents (Flexcon, www.flexconcontainer.com).

Even though the plant now has turned more toward VLM technology, it still makes use of the old vertical carousels. Of the five carousels previously used in the plant's central stores operation, three units have been relocated in the plant and repurposed. They now work in conjunction with VLMs in the new central stores activity, as Berkley points out. The carousels hold OEM (original equipment manufacturer) maintenance parts. This usage, as he explains, is a lighter-duty application than that performed by the VLMs.

VLM technology is headed toward becoming one more key handling method directly supporting Hampton Casting's manufacturing systems, meanwhile.

A VLM offers an ergonomic edge. It presents a required part to an operator in the "golden zone" for better ergonomics, says Ron Hockett, materials handling project engineer. Yet that's just one reason why VLMs will increasingly be used directly in production, he adds.

Compared to a prior storage system of two-tiered shelving, a VLM can reduce part retrieval time by two-thirds, says Hockett. Handling damage can also be cut by about 50% to 60%.

There's also about a 60% reduction in the floor space required for a VLM when compared to shelving holding the same amount of items. That also eases the site's space crunch.

So last year Hampton Casting began installing VLMs into its production operations. A single VLM with a 1,600 pound-per-tray capacity now holds more than 50 wax patterns. This unit, says Hockett, "is working just fine."

Plans to purchase other VLMs are under active consideration, he notes. They will hold wax patterns, ceramic cores, injection mold dies, finished molds, and other production parts. "All machines will be point-of-use storage systems, which will be integrated into our synchronous flow of production," Hockett adds.

"First-in/first-out control is important in our business," he explains, and the VLM computer software provides vital FIFO, date, and time tracking capabilities and helps manage inventory.

Raw materials receiving for manufacturing also has optimized storage efficiency with systems for greater cube utilization through the new narrow-aisle rack system and double-deep pushback racking.

The 26-foot-high, NA system was installed in a new warehouse on the plant site. It is an eight-aisle system with about 800 pallet positions. It replaces a smaller NA system with only 300 pallet positions, Berkley notes.

A single, man-up turret truck pulls or puts away pallet loads in the new NA system. The truck is wire guided, radio controlled and heavy-duty. It was custom designed for this application and installed in the plant.

The turret truck has a 4,200-pound lifting capacity, as Berkley points out, compared to a more typical 4,000-pound load limit for similar U.S. turret trucks operating at a 26-foot height.

The truck's greater capacity is necessary because Hampton Casting now receives a number of very heavy raw materials packaged in large sacks that are then loaded onto pallets for storage in the NA system.

Double-deep, pushback racking for other pallet loads also makes better use of limited floor space. "It doubles our storage capacity," says Hearn. This kind of rack is now used in both receiving and in central stores. In the future, the plant will add this kind of racking to its shipping department. "It's turning out to be a very valuable asset for materials handling," says Berkley.

In central stores and in receiving, some sections of the pushback racking as well as the conventional selective pallet racking are augmented with carton flow racking. Here's how this approach works: In either type of rack system, the floor-level rack bay becomes a carton flow rack area with up to four-high carton storage and seven flow lanes within a bay.

"The carton flow racking," says Hearn, "allows us to automatically rotate our inventory. We load the racking from the back and pull from the front."

This system results in "much improved ergonomics," he adds, for the operators who have to pick and replenish racking.

Enhancing ergonomics of jobs and increasing safety for plant employees are also among the goals behind upgrading production floor operations with cranes, manipulators, and more, as Hockett points out.

The plant already had some 400 hoist/crane units in operation. Hand trucks and motorized forklifts along with some conveyors provided much of the capability to move work in process through the plant's multi-step production operations.

Now, for example, several stacker cranes (overhead mounted mast cranes) have been added. They pick up and move trays of molds. Each tray weighs up to 2,000 pounds. And the plant has installed six free-standing, workstation cranes recently to handle molds weighing 500 to 1,000 pounds.

Mold assemblies, in general, are getting larger, says Hockett. Their weights now approach 1,000 pounds, up from a range of 200 to 400 pounds previously.

"For ergonomic and safety reasons," says Hockett, "we now use manipulators to handle molds." Each manipulator has a 1,000-pound capacity and an eight-foot-long arm. It picks up a mold from a power-and-free conveyor and maneuvers it into position for disassembly.

Just recently, the plant also installed a work manipulator for a lighter-duty application. With its 190-pound capacity this device easily handles and rotates assembled wax patterns.

Elsewhere on the plant floor, battery-powered lift assist devices provide another ergonomic edge. A single operator with a device now does a task that "historically had taken two persons to handle a load ranging in weight from 100 to 150 pounds," explains Hockett.

Automatic conveyors, he adds, now replace more manual means of moving heavy loads. Zero-pressure accumulation and chain-driven live roller conveyor handle loads of molds, where each load weighs up to 2,000 pounds.

Finally, for greater safety and ergonomics, Hampton Casting put more operators on the floor who walk and use electric hand pallet trucks and took them off of rider vehicles. The change affects lighter-duty tasks for loads less than one ton.

Change at Hampton Casting is a constant. Many of the equipment upgrades recently installed focus on improved ergonomics and safety, making it easier for employees to do their jobs.

There's another human factor, however. Here's how Berkley expresses it: "No matter how good the materials handling system, it's the people who make it work."

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