The Material Handling Blog

The testing phase is one of the most crucial and often overlooked project phases when planning for an AS/RS (automated storage and retrieval system). Selecting an optimal technology for a customer’s specific needs is only the first step of the process, testing helps to highlight additional opportunities, refine warehouse operations with the new automation, as well as mitigate unforeseen challenges. As we look into what goes into a typical test plan for an AS/RS, there are four stages that can be considered testing staples: remote interface testing, internal integration testing, integration testing with the customer and UAT (user acceptance testing) with the customer.

One of the biggest pain points in the life of a maintenance technician or installer is conveyor belt tracking. Here are a few helpful tips to lookout for and an easy, 3-step process to get your belt running right down the middle.

O Diretor de Fulfillment atribui a você um projeto para especificar um novo sistema de triagem e transportador capaz de "dobrar" as capacidades atuais. Por onde começar? Primeiro, comece entendendo e desafiando a verdadeira triagem e os requisitos do sistema. Os sistemas de transporte e triagem são soluções projetadas. Como a maioria dos problemas de engenharia, a solução geralmente é tão boa quanto suas entradas.

For decades, conveyor systems have been crucial for warehousing and logistics operations. Conveyor systems are used in all fundamental warehouse processes to transport raw materials out of storage to the production line, move products into other storage devices, and move final product into packaging lines, or transport packaged products to shipping. It is the most basic automation for anyone in the facility to transfer materials between long distances on varying elevations.

With the increased demand for ecommerce fulfillment and varied distribution channels, more companies are turning to 3PLs to provide the logistics.

Putting a bag on a pallet and conveying it is a simple enough concept; however, the variations in product must always be kept in mind if you want to prevent product damage and misaligned pallets. Here are five points to remember when using bag palletizing systems... Read More >>

Festive season 2021 is expected to bring numerous opportunities for retailers and ecommerce companies. The excitement with festive promotional sales offers will create massive online traffic, impact product sales and company turnover, and put enormous pressure on companies’ supply chain processes.

Emulation and digital twins are powerful tools that can provide some very real benefits in the world of controls engineering and system integration.

In today’s global market – facing an acceleration in ecommerce and managing the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic – flexibility is not only key, but a necessity. The flexibility to scale up or down and use automation where it fits best in order to help to maintain a leading edge in the industry markets. Facilitating greater speed, agility and adaptability in warehouse distribution and order fulfillment, Tompkins Robotics’ solutions are designed to allow customers to be more successful in dynamically changing environments. In 2019, Bastian Solutions added Tompkins Robotics’ autonomous mobile robot (AMRs) solution to our growing portfolio of automation capabilities. We talked to Mike Futch, the CEO and President of Tompkins Robotics, for a deeper insight on the technology and future of DC automation development.

“Quite frankly, we were gonna burst.” Sports company PUMA was not only quickly outgrowing their primary U.S. ecommerce distribution center in California, they were also facing increasing pressures in the rapidly evolving and growing North America ecommerce retail market. And, this was prior to the rapid ecommerce growth triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking to reach their east coast customers faster and more efficiently, a new automated warehouse was planned and opened in 2020 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Richelieu souhaite améliorer la satisfaction des 90 000 clients et plus qu’ils servent au Canada et aux États-Unis en exécutant les commandes de façon plus rapide et fiable. À titre d’importateur, de distributeur et de fabricant de matériel spécialisé de calibre mondial, Richelieu gère plus de 130 000 UGS. En plus d’une approche qui vise à uniformiser et à accélérer l’exécution des commandes, Richelieu a été en mesure de consolider le stockage externe en tirant profit de ses installations à Montréal. Elle s’est tournée vers Bastian Solutions pour obtenir des conseils et pour mettre en place la bonne combinaison de technologie d’automatisation pour augmenter la durée de vie de l’installation de Richelieu et mettre en place un système qui l’aide à maintenir de façon constante un service à la clientèle de grande qualité.

Conveyor and sortation systems are engineered solutions. Like most engineering problems, the solution is typically only as good as its inputs. Accurate data upfront ensures the solution is tailored to your individual business requirements and product specifications.