Vertical lift modules are automated storage and retrieval systems. They can significantly increase your warehouse storage space and improve material handling efficiency, resulting in faster pick rates. Shelving + Rack Systems, Inc, is proud to partner with Modula, a market leader in the vertical lift modules (VLM) and order selection industry.
Modula’s innovative designs allow our specialist team to customize your VLM to meet precise specifications, ensuring you receive the maximum benefit from your investment.
The intelligent engineering design of a Modula VLM can result in increased order selection productivity and higher profitability. They can also improve workplace safety standards and increase floor space, making your warehouse a more secure environment for your staff.
If you operate a storage and retrieval warehouse enterprise, Vertical Lift Modules could be the next evolution for your business.
Benefits of Using a VLM
Modula’s VLM has numerous features that can benefit any company that uses a storage system in its business. Using the latest technology, they provide solutions to many common warehouse problems.
Increase Storage Density
Finding more storage space is an ongoing concern for every warehouse manager, as a lack of space can have an adverse impact on order selection. When there are unexpected orders or untimely cancellations, it can mean your carefully planned system is no longer efficient.
Using a VLM, you can increase space savings by keeping stored items in your warehouse’s vertical space while ensuring that all your goods are easily accessible.
Your staff can load goods into bays located on the front and rear racks, and the extractor travels vertically, taking your goods to a higher storage point. You can use these columns of trays to support different SKUs, making batch picking faster and more accessible.
While horizontal carousels are also a practical storage solution, they can take up to 50% more floor space than a VLM, which takes away crucial space you could use for other materials and equipment.
Improve Warehouse Efficiency
When employees move through the warehouse to retrieve goods, this is time they could spend carrying out more profitable activities. With a Modula VLM system, the staff has all their merchandise in one location, instantly improving your order selection system.
Employees can use the modern touch screen console to locate their goods, and the automatic order picking systems bring them directly to their location.
You can even arrange for employees to unload lightweight merchandise from the front door, while other staff can unload heavier goods that require a forklift or crane at the rear doors. This feature allows for better allocation of resources, so your team can operate efficiently.
Reduce Clerical Errors
In a busy warehouse environment, staff can hurry and make clerical errors on their paperwork. Inaccurate records can lead to delays in locating items or could even result in sending the wrong goods to a customer. These errors can severely affect your order selection processes and customer retention.
Shelving + Rack Systems, Inc, carries Modula’s Warehouse Management System (WMS), which works in conjunction with intelligent scanning technology to significantly reduce human errors.
The VLM makes a digital record each time staff load goods into a bay and again when they remove it. The system provides real-time updates of each SKUs inventory levels, enabling you to order more stock when supplies are running low. Because the staff does not need to fill in paperwork, there is less room for error.
You can assign each staff member a unique password that they enter when storing goods for added security. These records show precisely when goods arrived, who was in possession of the merchandise, how long it remained in the VLM, and who removed it for delivery.
Because many clerical actions are repetitive, these automated systems remove the need for activities that take up valuable staff time so they can spend more time carrying out order picking duties.
This feature is also crucial for linking order selection systems with warehouse security. Because each action is documented on a digital record, you can see any anomalies in real-time and investigate potential issues. During your audit procedures, you can see precisely which operators performed tasks, giving complete transparency to the process.
Improve Warehouse Safety
Staff safety is paramount in a busy warehouse where there is almost continuous order picking each day. Modula uses both physical and photoelectric safety barriers to improve employee welfare. The system has achieved TUV GS certification, demonstrating its compliance with employee safety.
Shutter doors prevent goods from falling from their positions, making them safer than standard racking systems, and there is no need to climb stairs as the system brings the goods to your level. This feature also means there is less likely for employees to accidentally damage goods when retrieving an order.
The ergonomic design of the VLM also reduces the risk of workplace injury. Employees can wait at the unloading bay while the system brings the merchandise to a comfortable height, so they do not need to stretch or bend down when lifting heavy packages.
You can also opt for a sliding version of the Copilot Operator Console, so the employee can move the touch screen console along the tray’s length when they are retrieving an order. Each time they pick an item, they can move onto the next task without continually returning to the monitor to see what they need to do next.
Also, because a VLM requires less space than standard racking systems or horizontal carousels, employees better understand their surroundings. This benefit can be particularly crucial when working with heavy machinery or moving vehicles that could cause serious injury.
The Bottom Line
VLM’s bring considerable benefits to a storage and retrieval business. They can transform your storage space, potentially increasing it by up to 90%, improve your efficiency levels, and reduce the occurrence of errors when completing paperwork.
By reducing the risk of workplace injury and keeping safe staff, they create a better working environment.
Shelving + Rack Systems, Inc is delighted to partner with Modula, innovators in the VLM industry. For a consultation about how a Modula VLM can benefit your order selection processes, contact our sales team at (800) 589-7225.
