Material Handling Information

Home

Users

MH Glossary

Material Handling Info

How to Get Started

Daifuku America

Material Handling Information - Small Labor Pool

Labor

Small Labor Pool

Problem

Shortages of reliable, cost effective labor in local area.
Available workers are unqualified for position or require extensive training.
Difficult to attract/retain workers to perform labor intensive, non-value-adding tasks.
Workers promote out of entry level positions; difficult to replace them.
Insufficient labor resources limit production, growth, profitability.

Solution

Look for ways to reduce non-value added material movement.

Centralize material storage in mini load, unit load, or high-speed box buffers to eliminate non-value-added material movement and reduce distance material travels.
Calculate your product's touch history to identify and eliminate non-value-added activities.

Use automated transport systems such as Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV), Sorting Transfer Vehicles (STV), conveyors, and overhead monorails to deliver material directly to picking or processing workstations.
Minimize dirty, dangerous, difficult tasks such as heavy lifting through ergonomic planning and process redesign.
Use automated equipment to reduce manual labor for storing/retrieving/moving material in hazardous environments such as freezers.

Case Study Applications

Non-value added activities, such as searching for material, wastes valuable labor resources while limiting productivity and growth.

Workers at O.C. Tanner store and retrieve inventory from ergonomic workstations at a mini load automated buffer, eliminating non-valued added search for products.

User Comments

Guest Survey