Stepping it up

The operator makes the pick, confirms it on the touch-screen, it in the appropriate tote and moves on to the next pick.

The Solochain software has taken the responsibility of making sure the shuttles are stocked correctly. It contains a database of the specs of every Mold-Masters part. When an item reaches a minimum level, the software can either automatically re-order the part, or let it deplete and assign another part to its bin location—but only if that part is actually available. It will not hold space in the VLMs unless there is something to fill it.

“Typically [in stockrooms] 15 percent of cube is lost on empty bins,” Rodway explains. “When people actually go through the inventory reports, they’ll notice that they’ll never have that SKU again. It’s just a matter of no one telling the stockroom that.

“[The software] is a clean-up mechanism to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

The software also tracks the history of every part movement. This helps Mold-Masters identify and group fast-movers in order to minimize the move time and distance required for each pick.

Faster, smaller, more accurate
The company’s first foray into automation has yielded some serious improvements for the business.

Accuracy is up by at least 50 percent. Since only trained staff members are allowed to use the VLMs, the old problem of people grabbing parts without recording it has been eliminated.

“Unless you have a login ID, you can’t get on the machine,” Rodway says.

Only two individuals work in the shuttle area each shift, which has pushed regular labour costs—not to mention overtime—way down.

Since all four VLMs take up less than 500sqf, Mold-Masters has been able to reclaim nearly 80 percent of the area previously used for stock. This has given it space for new equipment, including a machine to re-sharpen its manufacturing tools in-house—a task it previously had to outsource.

Perhaps the biggest difference is speed in getting orders out. One example: as with many manufacturers, back-orders are common at Mold-Masters. But they’re not necessarily a problem. If certain parts for a system aren’t yet available, staff will assemble what they have as a work-in-process and set it aside until the missing components are in. 

Before, a semi-assembled system could sit for days after a backordered part was available. Now, as soon as the part enters the inventory, a picker on duty is alerted. Since nearly 50 percent of orders involve some work-in-process back-and-forth, this has sped things up considerably.