The Tray™ Issue #41 – Horizontal and Vertical Carousels Solution: Storage Systems
A horizontal carousel is an automated storage and retrieval system that can cost-effectively reduce stock-picking man-hours, enabling businesses to recover their investment. Inventory management and order fulfillment can be a significant cost to a warehouse, but a carousel system is an excellent tool for increasing productivity and increasing accuracy.
If fulfillment staff have to add walking and searching time to their material handling process, this can negatively affect picking operations speed and efficiency.
A horizontal system uses a series of shelving units that move on an oval track. Each compartment has shelves or bins to separate stock into organized containers. Operators enter a bin number, part number, or location, and the carousel brings the relevant unit to the staff member.
This automation of inventory control increases order picking rate and reduces picking errors. This increases accuracy, reduces picking errors and retrieval time, all while increasing productivity. With this configuration, picking rates can go up to 550 lines per operator each hour.
In more complex batch picking processes, the computer software intelligently brings each cart to the operator, allowing them to stay in one place while fulfilling multiple orders. As the operator removes one part, the system rotates and retrieves the next required bin.
With high-speed picking rates and fewer picking mistakes, operations become more streamlined and profitable. Many businesses have seamlessly integrated horizontal carousels into their warehouses, making order picking easier for staff.
Because you can customize a horizontal carousel to suit your order fulfillment area’s size and shape, it is straightforward to add this system to your current warehouse setup.
– Ceiling heights are less than 10’ and floor space is not a main concern
– Budget may be a concern – Horizontal carousels warehouse tends to be more economical
– Applications require high throughput. Arranged in a pod of 2 to 4 units, horizontal carousels have a pick rate up to 550 lines per hour.
– The product mix doesn`t change often and parts are medium or slow movers
– Applications which always need to have emergency access to the inventory
– The product mix doesn`t change often and parts are medium or slow movers.
– Applications which always need to have emergency access to the inventory.
There are various types of vertical carousel storage solutions available.
>Vertical Garment Storage Carousels:
These vertical storage carousels are automated to make retrieving coats, pants, shirts, suits, gowns and dresses easy at manufacturing facilities, warehouses and retail store locations.
>Tire Carousels:
Use these vertical storage carousels to manage and organize tires up to 33 inches. These vertical storage solutions are ideal for tire manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, or any operation that needs to store tires efficiently.
>Roll Carousels:
Roll carousels are vertical storage carousels that make it easy to organize oversized rolls of carpet, textiles, paper, vinyl and other materials. These vertical carousel storage solutions help maximize space, saving up to 70 percent of your floor. Additionally, these carousel storage solutions help minimize damage related to oversized rolls of material.
>Spool Carousels:
Vertical carousels for spools help you stay organized and work more efficiently. Use these spool carousels to store, manage and retrieve cable, chain, tubing, wire, rope and other materials that are stored using reels or spools, and customize your carousel to fit spools of any size up to 10 feet long.
>Print Cylinder Carousels:
Our vertical carousels for print cylinders can be used to maximize floor space while also allowing easy access to the print cylinders by a sole operator.
>Tray Carousels:
Tray carousels can help store inventory in a way that makes retrieval fast and easy. Take advantage of tray carousels in settings where machinery is available to help your team members do the heavy lifting.
>Increased Space
Saving space is what we do for a living. Our vertical carousel storage solutions allow you to maximize the amount of space you have by taking up a smaller portion of the floor, keeping the inventory you have out of the way so you can make room for more goods. Vertical storage eliminates the need for clutter, which makes life easier for you and your whole team.
>Better Organization
An organized workspace is also typically a much more pleasant and effective one, too. Having more room also means having more freedom to arrange and categorize your inventory in a manner that’s concise and easier to work with than an overstuffed, scattered warehouse. This allows you to plan and strategize with better accuracy and make smart business decisions.
>Reduced Costs
Vertical storage units allow you to hold more inventory in a smaller space. This means you need less warehousing even as you expand and have a better control of your inventory. Prevent losses and damage to your goods with a storage solution designed to keep your inventory levels at a maximum.
Shelving + Rack Systems, Inc. is a leading Authorized Distributor of Horizontal and Vertical Carousels solutions from Modula and Summit. Contact us by calling 800-589-RACK (855-969-4164), or 855-969-4164.
