Moving on up

Gone are the days when stores was a locked area, out of bounds to all but the brown-coated storeman. A requisition signed in triplicate would have been needed to extract parts, spares or tools from his well-guarded citadel. Today, whether they are incoming raw materials and components or outgoing finished goods, products need to be stored in easily accessible areas, supported by technology and processes that help the business to increase stock accuracy as well as drive fast replenishment. But accessibility has to be balanced carefully with the need for availability. Get it wrong, and just in time becomes just too late. What are the storage options for businesses today? How can companies strike the right balance between lower inventory levels, availability and accessibility? "From a material flow angle, with all the associated time and cost factors, there's a unique potential for vertical storage systems," says Richard Price, business development manager at Kardex, which manufactures automated retrieval and storage systems and is perhaps best known for its vertical storage products. As Price says, these vertical systems can be placed right at the point of use. "They can be used to store larger quantities of tooling, consumables, spares or components at the line side. Traditional storage methods - such as shelving and racking - don't allow you to do this, because the space required is just too great." The main productivity gain, therefore, lies in not having to regularly move material from a central store to the line. "There's also an enormous advantage in having an automated system that is driven by the same control logic that drives the production system - it all acts in harmony," he continues. "If you then consider auto loading and auto extraction, the productivity gains are potentially massive. The high levels of accuracy allow you to operate right at the optimum definition of lean and JIT." There's a whole raft of products and services on offer, from straightforward lineside shelving and containers, to fully automated retrieval solutions. In many cases, suppliers can offer services far beyond their initial product range - Linpac Storage Systems, for example, designs, manufactures and installs shelving and racking systems, but can also project manage rather sophisticated storage implementations, calling on sister companies within its group, where necessary. One company that is realising the benefits of new storage systems is fluid power component specialist Flowtech, which supplies products such as industrial hoses, couplings, valves, regulators and gauges. Each year comes a new catalogue with somewhere approaching 10,000 new products, so Flowtech has its work cut out ensuring enquiries and orders are dealt with and service levels maintained. To complement its existing racking and pallet storage systems, the company has bought 13 of the Kardex Shuttle XP systems to free up floor space and make the most efficient use of the space available. Keith Greenwood, Flowtech's IT and systems director, says that not only did the number of new product lines create the space issue, but also the fact that many of them came from the Far East which meant greater buffer stocks of these were required to counter longer lead times. In 2005, the company embarked on a project to investigate automatic retrieval and mezzanine floors. A business review predicted significant growth in small and medium-sized parts, so a vertical storage system was considered. Four companies tendered for the business: "Kardex came out the clear winner," says Greenwood. Five 12-high Shuttle XPs were installed in October 2005; bespoke tote boxes for components were selected and loading commenced. At the same time, Flowtech updated some of its systems and moved to handheld RF scanners and mobile label printers. A bespoke back office system allows picking routines to be optimized and develops efficient 'tours' - the routes used by each picking operator. In 2006, phase two saw a further three Shuttles being installed, followed by five more last year, bringing the total to 13. As well as the Shuttles, narrow-aisle racking has been installed to increase the pallet location spaces to 6,000. Medium- to slow-moving parts are stored in the Shuttles which, in total, store more than 40,000 products in a space of just 250m2. In fact, Flowtech has freed up so much space that it now has spare capacity. "The new systems we have in place, including the Kardex Shuttle units, are light years ahead of what we had previously," says Greenwood. He says that manual pick rates have increased by 50% to 40-45 picks per hour, thanks to the RF technology, barcoding and optimised picking schedules - and the automated vertical systems are giving 90-100 picks per hour. Greenwood is delighted with his choice: "I really don't think that any of the alternatives could have offered us the same level of service. In general, the installation has been a dream... we couldn't have achieved our objectives had we not installed these systems. We now have more products in less space with orders being serviced by the same staffing levels we had two years ago." If your business model centres on next-day delivery, as Flowtech's does, then product availability and accessibility must be at the forefront of any product storage strategy. But when it comes to production, there's arguably even greater call for fast, accurate parts availability. Squeezing every last drop of efficiency will be crucial for every business in the months ahead.