andling and holding stock
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Storage exhibition
• So much warehouse equipment is now available on the UK market that the recent '88 exhibition by Storage Handling Distribution attracted 140 exhibitors.
Bradford-based Label Applications, for instance, offers a free advisory service, provides simple addressing systems — custom-printed labels for specialised industries, including plastic film for chemicals, or sewn-in fabric labels.
Pinewood Label Systems, of Shepperton, Middlesex, launched its battery-operated version of its mains-powered Dispensamatic 16 automatic label dispenser. Typically, in a warehouse it is mounted on a trolley, with the labels having been printed on a computer.
Versatile answers to storage problems are claimed to be provided by Telford-based Link 51's range. Its Stormor Euroshelving, it says, will launch shelving and small parts storage into the 1990s. It comprises upright frames, shelves and a special locking-clip with a wedging action.
Nissan Plant & Industrial Machinery, of Worthing, showed its FX Compact pneumatic-tyre range of forklifts. Recently introduced into Europe they are available in LPG/petrol and diesel options.
Some pallet loads will not self-stack; some need protection. The answer used to lie in special packaging, probably resulting in slow handling. Use pallet cages from London-based GKN Chep, the company says, and loads will stack high and handle fast without damage.
Talking of hand-pallet trucks, Jungheinrich reckons its Arneise 200 has more variants than any rival in the world. In the UK the company has around 150 service vans and there are handling centres in seven locations.
New panels, Catch-Clad, from Trax UK of Swindon, aim to provide increased safety when forklifting laden pallets on or off racking.
The Caterpillar M3OD 15tonne electric cushion coun terbalanced truck, built in Leicester, was shown for the first time. At 900mm wide by 1,830mm long, it is believed to be the smallest vehicle of its type on the market.
Bar codes on goods packages have arrived and Lex Concessionaires, part of Lex Service, has bar-code scanners as well as two-way communication systems between warehouse and central computer.
Need to clean up? Andrews Powerclean of Wolverhampton provides nationwide hire of specialist equipment — such as a powered sweeper, costing £6,000, at £230 a week. 0 Expanding? The Institute of Logistics and Distribution Management of Corby, Northants, will be running a two-day workshop dealing with warehousing the supply chain and transport, at the Chelsea Hotel, London, 12-13 December, at £225, in relation to the Single European Market arriving in 1992.
Just-in-time seminar
• Just-in-time manufacturing and stockholding can cut costs by 10% to 30%, a two-day conference organised by the Institute for International Re search was told last week.
According to Coopers and Lybrand director Nicholas Edwards, transport and distribution companies now bring justin-time (JIT) deliveries to the factory at the last moment.
"It is only 36 hours from the time that the iron ore is taken to the blast furnace to the moment when the Toyota car is driven off the end of the production line."
JIT programmes are being implemented in several automotive companies including Cummins, Leyland-Daf and York International.
Joe Booth, director of manufacturing at York International, said that a JIT company solved its problems and made decisions "bottom up". He explained: "This means that management creates the environment and gives the support but the power to solve problems is kept at the sharp end."
To most western organisations that was a complete change in culture: in a JIT company, the best quality that
a man possesses is his ability to think and reason, he said.
This was reinforced by Ron Johnson, quality manager, Ctunmins Engineering, who said: "JIT is not a sophisticated, computer-based technol. ogy that only PhDs can understand. It is a return to the basic production engineering principles that we all learned years ago.
"Unfortunately, it took the Japanese to show us the art of effective implementation". By the end of this year, and less than one year into the JIT programme, York International's inventory had been cut by 30%, the supplier base was down from 330 to 253, on-time shipments were improved from 82% to 95% and total direct cost savings of £69,000 were reported.
Paul Taylor, senior consultant, Coopers & Lybrand Associates, said that in the long term, JIT can benefit cash flow through release of stock. In the short term, however, profits take a small downturn.