Vertical Storage Systems and Powered Conveyors Help Parts Distribution Center Increase Efficiency

The parts business of JLG Industries, Inc. has been growing each year for its own brands of equipment including JLG aerial work platforms and telehandlers, Triple-L trailers, and Gradall, Sky Trak and Lull telehandlers. JLG also supplies its customers with parts for certain competitive brands of aerial work platforms. Marketed under the name PartsPlus, this portion of JLG's parts business has grown at an even faster rate. As JLG's parts business has grown, the existing 16,000 square foot Parts Distribution Center started to reach its limits, both in the amount of inventory it could hold, as well as the efficiency of its work force. They could no longer pick, pack and ship at efficient levels and because of the limited space, adding more workers would have only compounded the inefficiencies.

To find a solution, JLG turned to Mike Ward, a sales consultant with V&H Material Handling, an Enola, PA company specializing in warehouse efficiency. Ward recommended expanding the warehouse by viewing it as a three-dimensional cube. He said that storage capacity could be increased by using vertical storage systems to take advantage of the height of the Parts Distribution Center, which has ceilings as high as 30 feet at its mid-point, instead of expanding the building horizontally. From Ward's perspective, worker efficiency could also be increased by adding powered conveyors connected to ergonomically friendly packing stations and utilizing the latest in computerized tracking and picking technology.

JLG accepted his recommendation and over a 16-week period converted the warehouse to an automated assembly line for parts. At the heart of the new system are Remstar Shuttle vertical storage modules and Hytrol powered conveyors that deliver totes to seven Pro-Line packing stations. The Remstar Shuttles consist of trays stocked with parts that move up and down in response to an operator's command. Each one took up only 70 square feet of floor space and could extend as high as the building's ceiling. To operate them, workers enter the customer order number and push the start button. The tray holding the part is retrieved and brought to an opening for picking.

Average retrieval time for a part is only 15 seconds. It is then added to a tote and when the order is completed, it is automatically moved to a packing station. There, all the parts for the order are packed, weighed and moved into a waiting truck. Average time for an order to be entered, filled and in the truck has been reduced to just five minutes.

Orders are shipped the same day as received, and when necessary, orders received by 6:00 PM Eastern Time can be delivered anywhere in North America by the next morning.

Vic Erickson, JLG's Manager -- Logistics, Parts and Accessories, notes that the vertical storage system has allowed JLG to increase its parts capacity by 40 percent without any increase in floor space. "No matter where our customer is located, our priority is to get them what they need, when they need it," he added. "We're part of the economic engine that makes JLG the premier supplier to an entire industry and thanks to Mike Ward and the material handling equipment V&H supplies, we're equipped to maintain that position."


JLG Industries, Inc.,

One JLG Drive, McConnellsburg, PA 17233

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