Cartridge-style Industrial Cart
A well-known company in the small appliance industry had multiple line-side flow racks on its production floor supplying parts (e.g., bolts, nuts, etc.) for the assembly process. The rack consisted of multi-lane, multi-level roller conveyors set at convenient ergonomic heights for the assembler.
The current method of restocking the flow racks required a material handler to tow a simple two shelf supply cart out to the various flow rack locations on a “route” to manually fill the roller lanes with full totes and retrieve empties. The route typically took an hour to complete but had to be repeated 3 times per shift. The company was looking for a more efficient delivery cart process which would allow the material handler to complete the route much more quickly providing more time for the support of other assembly areas.
Lean Material Handling Solution
K-Tec was asked to address the small parts challenge and proposed a modification of its delivery cart that would integrate directly with shortened stationary line-side flow racks. The modified cart would resemble a mobile flow rack and function as a cartridge style industrial cart system for quick replacement.
When the assembler was ready for parts, the material handler would tow the full cartridge cart system to the line-side location, remove the empty cart and replace it with a full cart positioned directly behind the shortened flow rack (to allow the system to fit without extending into the aisles). The empty cartridge carts would be towed back to the market areas and filled with totes for the next runs. Exchanging cartridge carts instead of filling stationary racks will give the material handler approximately 1 ½ to 2 hours per shift to allocate to other supply issues.
