February - Modern Materials Handling

modern SYSTEM REPORTThe parts center supports the highquality manufacturing machines soldin the Western Hemisphere.to sort through 50 or 60 parts to find thespecific one specified on an order sheet.The workers then carried the pickedorders to the packing areas where theywere packed and shipped.But it wasn’t just manual handlingthat created challenges. “Nobody ordersparts at 8:00 in the morning,” Trammelsays. “Part orders usually come in theafternoon but we still have to get themout the same day for delivery to our customers.To push through up to 1,200orders in a six-hour window, we wereincreasingly throwing more and moremanpower at the situation.”Automating the aftermarket partsarea emerged as a solution that wouldallow Mazak to manage more parts andsame-day orders without continuallyadding labor.Adding automationThe transformation of the parts centertook a little less than six months.During that period some 19,000 newpart numbers were added.The solution involved 13 new VLMsgrouped in four pods in pick-and-passworkstations. Each tray can hold up to1,100 pounds of parts. The trays themselvesare 8 feet wide and 34 inchesdeep. One of the VLMs is a largerheavy-duty unit, which is designedfor much bigger and heavier parts.Together, they create a 125-foot longpicking area, with a conveyor line runningin front of them.The VLMs are also equipped withpick-to-light technology. A light bar runsacross the front of the unit and directsthe operator to the exact location of thepart to pick and displays the quantity topick as well as the part number.Same space with more partsThe dense storage provided by the VLMsallowed Mazak to keep the same footprintin the parts warehouse while increasingstorage capacity within that spaceby 95%. For instance, the old VLMshandled 20,000 individual part numbers.All of those, plus another 19,000 partnumbers are now being handled by thenew VLMs, which has allowed Mazakto accommodate parts for new machinemodels without a problem. Another7,000 oversized part numbers are storedon racking in the warehouse.To ensure the accuracy of orders,Mazak created a five-point check systemmanaged by the warehouse managementsystem:1) The warehouse ensures that it carriessufficient inventory so the part willbe in stock when the order arrivesfrom a customer;2) every part is labeled with a bar codefor identification;3) the light strip on each tray displaysthe stock number and part name ofLarge parts and pallets are stored onracks serviced by a stacker crane.20 F EBRUARY 2009 / MODERN MATERIALS HANDLING mmh.com