Conveyor gets distributor cooking

Meyer Corp. cut trailer unloading time by several hours and speeds cartons to palletizing.

By Noël P. Bodenburg -- Modern Materials Handling, 8/1/2006

Folks at the Meyer Corporation, a distributor of high-end cookware, were tired from so much heavy lifting. Every day, workers at the Vallejo, Calif., facility manually unloaded from trailers hundreds of cartons of pots and pans weighing up to 40 pounds each. Then they manually staged the cartons for palletizing.

An advanced conveyor system (Hytrol, 870-935-3700) has changed all that. "The unloading time for a trailer went from several hours to less than an hour for each one," says Jarod Sproule, distribution center manager.

But the conveyor system didn't stop with unloading. It now automatically accumulates and meters cases to an automatic palletizer, saving still more time while reducing worker injuries.

"There's a significant return on investment when you can consider the handling of the product and the direct relationship with work-related injuries," said Gail-Adela Fabricante, safety manager for Meyer.

The system begins at the receiving door where the product arrives unpalletized but boxed and ready to go to stores for display. Multiple stock keeping units (SKUs) arrive on each trailer.

Workers manually load each carton onto an extendible conveyor that feeds a live roller spur conveyor. That directs the cartons to a zero-pressure accumulation line, which feeds an inclined belt conveyor for delivery to a mezzanine level.

Once there, carton labels are scanned before another conveyor feeds cases at a rate of 45 per minute to an induction gapper that accumulates cases of the same SKU.

Once a full pallet load of cartons is accumulated, they are released to a decline belt conveyor and a mid-level, ceiling supported conveyor that feeds the palletizer.

As an additional benefit, the new configuration in the facility minimizes the loss of storage and increases the amount of staging area at the dock.