Overhead Chain Conveyor Aids Order Picking and Trash Removal Mechanization of the distribution center (DC) has become commonplace, to the point that certain tasks are mechanized as the standard approach. Split case distribution is considered to be the most difficult of applications to mechanize. But, a Tennessee distribution center has found ways to mechanize even this. The challenge, in this instance and others like it, is in dealing with individually picked items, located in a high-density storage area, which are without individual item labeling. The items are generally non-conveyable and require use of a shipping medium like a carton or tote for picking. And there’s a need for a quality control check. These split case distribution centers also generate trash from master cartons as items are picked. To address these mechanization issues, the Tennessee distribution center installed overhead chain conveyors. Included were a number of separate overhead conveyor systems with several thousand feet of overhead chain. The distribution center picks split case items in a high-density storage pick module that is 4 levels high for best cubic efficiency. It incorporates flow racking, which is replenished with full carton goods around its perimeter. Meantime, full cartons flow to a middle area for picking. There are side-by-side conveyor lanes in a gravity/power/gravity configuration here. Order picking begins with the generation of a picking list and a shipping label. An order picker will choose a shipping container (carton or tote) and affix the label. The containers are made available to the picker via overhead chain conveyor located above the triple-wide conveyor lanes. Operators may add a new carton or tote box from...
Space Efficient Overhead Conveyor System In the race to maximize space, packagers are finding answers from above. Above the production areas, that is. In greater numbers, they are using ceiling space for overhead conveyors. Last year, Pacline Corporation, a supplier of such technology, installed more than 125 units with the average order being several hundred feet in length. The ‘lion’s shares’of those orders were to Ontario firms striving to achieve cost-effective operations. Costly expansion plans definitely did not fit into that scenario/ Finding new opportunities to keep product prices competitive certainly did. “We lucked into a real opportunity,” recalls Ross Powell, a member of the industrial engineering department, from his Montreal office at MacMillan Bathurst Inc., manufacturers of corrugated containers. Powell explains that his unit had been using a vacated office area to store printing dies. The possibility of sub-letting that area arose, but it meant finding a new home for the dies. Their solution: suspending the dies from the ceiling using an overhead conveyor. As a result, floor space could still be used for other matters, and access to the dies would be relatively easy. It’s been more than a year since the Montreal facility purchased two overhead conveying lines from Pacline. Each line is 250 ft long and has 10 hangers/ft. Powell points out that this new arrangement saves workers the bother of walking aisle after aisle in search of the die they are after. Instead, each die is given a number and by calling up that specific number, the die automatically comes to the worker. Furthermore, this system makes inventory much simpler. If a die...
