Picking and Putting for Manufacturing
Depending on the manufacturing process, picking and putting operations are often a significant portion of the labor invested in finished goods. Small assembly inventories are placed next to the assembly line with specific instructions for picking based on the product being manufactured. Kan Ban replenishment techniques are used to notify upstream parts buffers that a particular component is beginning to run low.
Bastian offers a wide variety to tools to speed the process of parts picking and putting in a manufacturing environment. Typically they will use carton flow racking or shelving with an information system interface. Some of the popular interfaces today include:
- Hand-held Multi-lingual "RF" Terminals
- Pick/ Put –to– Voice
- Pick/Put –to– Light
- Pick/Put –to– Display
Full case picking operations often use the following types of equipment:
- Pallet flow racking
- Carton flow racking
- Slapper lanes with pallet conveyor
- Carton shelving
- Bulk stacked pallets on the floor
- Conventional selective rack
In most manufacturing facilities over 50% of the overall labor is expended with picking or putting operations. Therefore it is very important to study and possibly simulate the various picking methodologies to determine the optimum picking technology for your manufacturing process.
