Big savings for small parts
December 1st 2007 Improved organisation, space savings, faster picking all compelling reasons for the
swing towards inclined shelving and carton live storage, according to BITO
BITO Storage Systems says there is a
move within the handling and
storage sector from the use of
traditional small parts storage products
such as shelving and longspan racking,
towards inclined shelving and carton live
storage. The company claims this is largely
due to the inherent virtues of the carton
live system ie faster picking and reduced
manpower as well as improved space
saving and organisation.
Making sufficient quantities of small
parts available using traditional storage
solutions often requires cartons or pallets to
be stacked around a fixed location, which
hogs a lot of space at the pick face for a
single item. This means either fewer pick
locations in a given space or necessitates
using more valuable floor space for a
bigger pick face.
With carton live, goods are fed into the
system at the back to flow down rollers in a
lane designed around the carton or
container to be presented at the front on
the pick face. The lane can hold as many
cartons as the application requires. Once a
carton at the pick face is empty it is simply
taken away and, thanks to the laws of
gravity, a full carton sitting behind it in the
lane flows down to take its place, therefore
ensuring that small parts are constantly
available to pick.
"Carton live storage gives, within a short
distance, a greater density of pick locations
for small parts, with a saving on floor space
in the region of 15-20 per cent being a
reasonable assumption," says BITO Systems
md, Ed Hutchison. "Time is saved also;
depending on the application, travel times
for order pickers can be improved by up to
66 per cent."
Health and safety is always a central
concern for all warehouse and distribution
operations and carton live storage can
minimise the risk of accident when it
comes to small parts picking, particularly
when it is combined with a pallet live
system, used for storing fast moving small
parts, or buffer pallet storage.
"This is thanks to a design of the system,
which sees replenishment taking place in
the aisle at the back of the system while
picking takes place at the same time in the
aisle in front," explains Hutchison.
"Separating the replenishment aisles, which
would have a forklift running up and down
them, from the 'pedestrianised' picking
aisles not only eliminates the risk of
accident but also allows replenishment and
picking operations to take place
simultaneously."
In carton live storage, pallets for buffer
stock can be placed above the carton lanes
on the replenishment side.
"At BITO we are converting a lot of
traditional racking installations into carton
live at the bottom and the introducing push
back racks for the pallet buffer storage to
help ensure replenishment is separated
from picking," says Hutchison.
For combined carton and pallet live
systems, the pallet lanes for fast moving
goods are on the bottom level with the
carton lanes above. This allows combined
order picking of small and large SKUs (Stock
Keeping Units) or fast and slow moving
SKUs in the same area and creates a
balanced work load in each storage
area/picking location.
Small parts bins and containers
BITO has a range of small parts bins and
containers including the RK containers
which are the company's best selling unit in
the UK.
"The market is moving away from the
traditional open front 'shoe-box' container
to pull-out plastic drawer systems, which
offer better utilisation of space and better
protection against dust and pilferage,"
claims Hutchison.
He says another key trend is the growing
propensity to use Euro-sized pallets and
containers: "Not so long ago a Euro pallet
was a rare sight and, while they still
constitute a minority within the overall UK
pallet population, their numbers are
growing and increasingly companies need
to plan for the handling of these pallets as
well as a traditional pallets.
"Similarly for small part containers,
companies need to cater for the Euro
containers, in particular accommodating
their footprint. For this reason we are
seeing a big move from traditional 1 metre
wide shelving towards widths of 1300 mm
because that will accommodate two lots of
Euro containers 600 mm wide or three lots
of 400 mm wide containers. At BITO's
German manufacturing plant we now
produce more 1300 mm wide shelves than
we do 1 m shelves and that's to
accommodate Euro containers. But it's a
new trend for the UK."
For further details, use the free reader
enquiry service or call the number below.
'Indestructible' RK
BITO's RK series of storage and handling
bins for small parts are made from
indestructible and dimensionally stable
polypropylene and come with a 5-year
warranty. The RK range has a choice of
14 sizes, the largest has external
dimensions of 600 x 234 x 140 mm
(LxWxH), which gives a volume of 15.4
litres and a 15 kg load capacity. A
handle and moulded handgrip allows
easy and safe handling, while clean
corners, smooth inner surfaces and base
enable maximum volume utilisation. More articles from BITO Storage Systems Ltd: | 
