Blum: A remodeling success

The North Carolina manufacturer of kitchen cabinet hardware expanded its automated systems to accommodate a booming business.

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 1/1/2007

Two primary markets drive demand for kitchen cabinet hinges and drawer slides from Blum Inc.—new home construction and remodeling. Thanks to thriving business in both markets in recent years, the company's U.S. sales doubled, leading Blum to undertake its own remodeling project.

The heart of Blum's manufacturing facility in Stanley, N.C., is automated storage that manages everything from components and work-in-process (WIP) to finished goods, supporting manufacturing and distribution, explains Michael Geis, vice president of logistics.

Before the expansion, the six-aisle automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) was running above 95% capacity and couldn't accommodate peaks in production. To solve the problem, Geis oversaw the addition of three aisles to the AS/RS—adding 5,500 new storage locations.

"With the new addition, we're probably running at about 75% capacity, so we're doing pretty well now," Geis says.

Along with the expanded storage, Blum added 850 feet of roller conveyor to reduce manual handling in shipping. Also new is a more powerful warehouse management system (WMS) that handles the complexities of the company's expanding operations.

It wasn't simple, but with proper planning, Blum succeeded in upgrading its facility with minimal customer inconvenience. The company added space, reduced labor and gained tighter control of inventory—all with less downtime than a contractor would need to remodel a typical kitchen.

Five years ago, Blum made the leap to automation, moving from lift truck putaway and retrieval in racks to random storage in an automated system (see The warehouse is our heartbeat - Sept. 2002). The switch to automation allowed Blum to increase production without adding people to manage the increased throughput.

The original AS/RS was designed to meet the company's unique storage needs. The system included half size, full size and oversize storage locations. It also accommodated three pallet sizes interchangeably:

• A standard Euro pallet
• A smaller "Blum pallet," which Blum-Austria uses to ship components to North Carolina on ocean-going containers
• A "Blum box," a wooden crate one-fourth the size of a pallet, in which Blum stores WIP.

The design worked so well that, when it came time to expand, Blum was reluctant to alter the system.

"We wanted to keep the warehouse storage as dynamic as possible," Geis says. He and his team considered lengthening the original six aisles of the 80-foot tall AS/RS. Instead, they decided to add three new aisles, allowing them to maintain throughput in the system.

The expansion increased warehouse capacity from 12,500 pallet locations to 18,000. The new aisles have the same unique design as the original ones, giving Blum the flexibility to store any material anywhere in the warehouse.

When Blum originally automated its storage in 2001, many other processes remained manual, including preparation of shipments.

Today, preparing shipments of finished goods is an automated process. Pallets leave picking stations on roller conveyor that carries them through labeling and stretchwrapping and on to the shipping dock for staging.

Blum occasionally picks and unitizes orders in advance. These pallet loads are now stored in the AS/RS, freeing up space in the shipping area.

To accommodate the new storage space and shipping procedures, Blum decided to install a new WMS. Switching to the new software required careful planning.

"We basically had a live system that we had to do surgery on," says Geis.

To begin the transition, Blum started the new equipment running on the new software while still running the original equipment on the original software. By rerouting some conveyor, Blum was able to split the two systems.

"For about a month," says Geis, "it was like running two separate warehouses, side by side."

Blum used this time to train staff on the new system while continuing to support manufacturing and distribution with the old system. The company then took advantage of the slow week between Christmas and New Year's to shut down both systems and tie them together—physically and virtually—with conveyor and the new software.

Six months later, Geis talks about how well the expanded system works and how smoothly the transition took place.

The company hit its internal targets for throughput and labor reduction. Shipping accuracy has remained high at 99.5%. The new WMS allows for better inventory control, minimizing the need for cycle counting and improving customer service. And the expanded storage leaves room for future growth.