Fast put away and picking
October 1st 2008 Storage and picking of
aluminium extrusion has
been automated at
Universal Aluminium
Systems, Bristol, resulting in
greater stockholding
capacity and faster
handling. Availability of
material ex-stock has been
extended and turnaround
of orders is quicker.
The improvement follows
installation of a 1000-
location Unicompact
computer-controlled
storage and retrieval system
from Kasto, linked to new
enterprise resource
planning software.
Jarl Severn, general
manager, says "The
investment started paying
for itself from day one, as
we need fewer staff to
operate the automated
system. After a few years,
the cost of the store will be
amortised and future use of
the system will bring in
additional profit for our
company."
In one third of the space
taken by A-frame racks that
held 300t of material, 800t
is held in the Unicompact
honeycomb system.
When a delivery of
extrusion is received, it
takes just 2h to crane the
material off the container
onto the conveyors feeding
the automated store, a task
that used to take an 8h shift.
There are fewer health
and safety issues and less
risk of damage.
Picking an order from the
Kasto store, under
instruction from the ERP
system, is said to be at least
twice as fast as with the
previous system. More articles from Kasto Ltd: | 
