MICROingranaggi does not produce automatic warehouses, nor does it sell them. But this I think you know well. I have however decided to dedicate a post to this topic because
I am convinced that, nowadays, investing in an automatic warehouse has become almost inevitable.
It’s just a matter of time and everyone will sooner or later take this step. In fact, there are so many advantages resulting from the implementation of an automatic warehouse that failing to use one could spell expulsion from the market. This is also demonstrated by the fact that the companies that I have visited and who have installed an automatic warehouse have added more of them over time.
Let’s see why.
First of all a point related to the space in the workshop.
An automatic warehouse is, on average, much larger than a traditional one. In our case, for example, we would shift – for the same goods to be stored – from 100 square meters occupied by the current warehouse to the 20 square meters required instead for the automatic one.
Not to mention the issues related to the ordering of goods and the picking speed.
An automatic warehouse in fact presupposes an organization of the goods that is completely different from the traditional one: with a single call it is possible to remove all the components necessary for creation of the same product, thus speeding up the work of the warehouse personnel (who – in this way – will have more time to devote to other activities) and greatly reducing the possibility of error in picking up parts.
Errare humanum est , but – if we can avoid it – so much the better!
Then the safety aspect must be considered.
Safety, on the one hand, of the items being stored. Storing without human intervention, for example, of a very expensive tool at a height of seven meters, means that it is less likely to fall and break accidentally, and even less, to be lost.
But also, on the other hand, the safety of workers , who would no longer need to climb steps, possibly quite steep, to pick up very heavy boxes, running the risk of excessive efforts or slipping and hurting themselves.
Last but not least, a further discussion must be made regarding the reduction of the possibility of error as well as the accountability of personnel.
Implementing an automatic warehouse in the workshop, in fact, everything will be tracked. And with everything I do not mean only the goods taken (and marked with a barcode, for example, or an RFID tag), but also the activities of the warehouse personnel. Each operator will be given a unique code with the objective of keeping track of when and what they will do.
To this is added the possibility to enable certain sectors (or drawers) of the warehouse only in combination with determined operator codes. Turnery personnel, for example, will only be able to access sections 1, 2 and 3, avoiding – in this way – the risk of depositing a tool in the wrong section (reserved for example for the gearing department).
Clearly and obviously replacing a warehouse requires a huge amount of work, especially if the operation must be carried out without, in fact, halting production, as deliveries must be made under the terms established with customers.
Emptying the old warehouse, dismantling it, installing the new one and refilling it again, and reorganising all the goods (with all that entails) are activities that require weeks, as well as a considerable expenditure of energy.
But – if we consider the path that the manufacturing industry has taken – what alternative do we have?
