The Material Handling Blog

Every movement within a distribution center or warehouse, from picking to replenishment, impacts the bottom line. Implementing a goods-to-person (GTP) system is one way to optimize these movements, reducing the time spent searching for items and improving overall accuracy.

Whether your company is headquartered or has locations in Central America, you know how important the region is to global manufacturing, warehouse distribution and cross continental freight. Mexico and other Central American country’s location in the western hemisphere is both strategic for global trade as well as in-country distribution. Their skilled yet cost competitive labor force make them very desirable for many consumer goods, farming and agriculture, petroleum, and other raw materials for manufacturing.

Warehouses are an integral part of the supply chain management system of any organization for storing and distributing goods efficiently and effectively. However, there are certain common mistakes that warehouse operators make that can negatively impact the productivity and efficiency of the warehouse.

No matter the industry, demand for products and services is at an all-time high. This increase in demand may leave you wondering how to best maneuver and store materials in your warehouse while remaining productive. More and more operations are configuring their warehouse space to accommodate narrow aisles. Warehouse operations are also choosing to automate systems to allow for more storage space and increased productivity when performing highly standardized, repetitive tasks. Narrow aisle forklifts such as Toyota’s Core Electric Turret Forklift, Order Picker, Stand Up Rider, along with automated solutions such as the Core Tow Tractor and Center-Controlled Rider, may be a great solution for your operation. Discover how automated systems and narrow aisle solutions can help you navigate your warehouse confidently and take your operation to the next level.

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.

Learn more about this unique automated warehouse storage system and what makes it the best option for maximizing storage density.

There are many automation technologies available to improve omni-channel fulfillment – but which are right for your operation?

The Vectura unit load stacker crane is a flexible and modular design concept which allows our customers to quickly configure the crane and ASRS to their specific application.

As I was recently working on an Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS)project, I had the opportunity to reflect on how much the technology has changed in just the past few years. One of the more valuable references I was using--from the Material Handling Institute of America --divided the ASRS technology into two main families: fixed aisle and carousel/vertical left module (VLM). However, some of the new advances in ASRS have a hard time fitting into either of these categories.