As Bluff Manufacturing operations continue to expand the available work area within the established production floor remains constant. This presented a challenge as relates to balancing the available work area and required storage queue capacity to enable the continuous production process. It was noted that the available horizontal area had been completely consumed with operations and storage, however, there was vertical space which had not been occupied at the time as shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1
In an effort to increase the efficiency of the facility, increase storage and operations per area, it was determined that storing the sheet stock materials in a vertical configuration would provide a solution. Given the self-supporting bulk sheet stock it was determined that the most economical vertical storage solution was the cantilever rack system. The advantages to putting this storage system in place were that it increased the efficiency rating of the facility as a whole, decreased vehicular transport operations time and cycles to handle materials, and provided safety advantages for both operators and vehicles.
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