What does the Company Director, Warehouse / Logistics Manager or Manufacturing Manager look for when they want to automate their handling processes?

Over many years in developing integrated materials handling solutions, the same concerns are continually raised with us by senior management.

In this Newsletter we show our recognition and address the five (5) main issues that you have repeatedly raised

1. The Design Solution – Is this satisfying my requirements?

As a customer you are aiming for a solution that can satisfy your requirements to minimise or eliminate manual handling.  A practical conveyor system design must provide you with measurable and immediate improved efficiencies by reducing the amount of unproductive personnel movement through your warehouse or manufacturing cell, or eliminate it completely.

To provide the efficiency, you may be looking to reduce staffing requirements by utilising the system to move the goods, or alternatively you may be considering a marked increase in product throughputs whilst maintaining current staffing levels and having them work more efficiently, hence drastically reducing your unit cost to move each item.

The design solution must be “fit for purpose” to fulfil the requirements that you need now to reap the efficiency gains and must be able to grow with you without increasing labour costs.

The chosen solution provider must gain an “understanding” of what YOUR needs are now and develop a solution that can grow with the business or be adaptable to change should your business change in scope or direction. A good solution designer will have considered the possibility of future growth patterns and will present you with a solution that can adapt as required.

You should be presented with a solution that covers all of your requirements and which can be demonstrated by the designer to be “future proofed” and adaptable to business changes, increased product or movement volumes as well as being suited to the re-integration within major system upgrades and site relocations with enhanced or higher technology additions.

 2. Build Quality – Am I getting Precision manufacture and components?

In a price conscious world, often some aspects can be overlooked or forgiven.

We believe that you (our customer) are entitled to expect and to be offered equipment within the conveyor system that is of the highest build quality, yet can be offered at an economical supply price.

You want your investment in automated handling equipment to perform at or above expectations on a continual basis without hiccup. Often automated systems will run over multi-shift operations for 6-7 days per week without stopping and this can only be achieved if the build quality is high.

Through numerous changes over many years, the design and assembly methods of conveyor equipment hardware have been streamlined and perfected to obtain high quality manufacture of specific product modules that not only provide high and consistent build quality, but also ensures that individual modules go together at your site and in unison with all other modules as the designer intended. This coupled with the added bonus that all rotating and driven parts are assembled using only “high quality” precision engineered European sourced conveyor components, satisfies your expectations.

The solution provider that has chosen to resist all attempts to compromise on the quality of its inclusions by insisting that components must always be sourced from quality European suppliers will be in a position to offer you higher specified, often unique and certified quality materials and build.

 3. Experience – What have they done before?

As you embrace the concept of introducing automated handling into your operations you will be searching for qualified assistance from a forward thinking company that not only takes an interest in solving your handling requirements but also attempts to understand how your business operates and your plans for growth. 

Confidence is easily gained when you become aware that the system designer has a track record in systems designed and integrated into similar industries such as yours and which can be easily and confidently demonstrated as having provided workable and affordable solutions to specific handling issues.

You will take comfort in not only knowing that the systems provider’s company principals have personally 70 years of systems experience, with a combined in-house experience spanning in excess of 110 years in providing solutions to most manual handling issues through smart conveyor system design.

Your confidence is again buoyed as you can see that the system designer has remained up to date with design advances over a long period of time and is in most instances at the forefront in providing “contemporary” solutions in systems design and hardware manufacture offering “state of art” and often unique components and inclusions.

The solution provider that can demonstrate not only a period of continuous history and an ongoing commitment through development of their own design / manufacturing facilities and has actively established alliances or partnerships with specialist equipment or service providers will satisfy all of your comfort requirements in every case.

In all instances you would prefer to discuss your plans with an established solutions provider that can demonstrate their ability to provide effective methods that can assist you with your business growth plans. It is not sufficient that you expose risk to your total business by discussing your overall systems requirements with companies that typically offer limited or part solutions such as fork lift requirements, static storage methods or plastic bins or trolleys. Whilst it is most important to your overall operations, fully integrated systems experience offered by these ancillary suppliers is invariably extremely limited.

 4. Reliability – Will it last and will they be around to support it?

Having outlaid considerable expenditure on an automated handling system, it is your prerogative to expect that the installed system will provide many years of ongoing and trouble free operations.

Reliability is the key requirement for any system designed to satisfy specific handling problems, not only at the time of build, but also well into the future as you reap the rewards of your earlier decision.

The solutions provider at the design stage will select the key handling modules or “Best fit for Task” hardware that they know will offer the reliability and ongoing operability for all of your current and future needs.

Furthermore, by incorporating only the highest quality available parts and components out of Europe the smart provider is able to ensure system reliability, without compromise to you and your operating staff.

Expectations of high and ongoing reliability go hand in hand with preventative maintenance. A system provider that can supply each customer with a planned programme of continuous and ongoing onsite maintenance service will demonstrate not only their ongoing commitment to that customer and his business fortunes, but also the commitment of the designer /provider to stand by their product and to keep all operating components fully serviceable and reliable for many years.

A provider that can demonstrate a “past” as well as a “future” will give great comfort to you and your team.

5. Price – Am I getting value for money?

Price is important and will always be at the forefront of any customer’s decision making process.

A systems provider that has demonstrated their ability to “solve your problems” and “offer you a solution” that satisfies all of your needs for the current operations and enables you to clearly “see well into the future” with the design, will inevitably be confronted with the need of justifying to you, their price to implement the system.

A systems provider that can demonstrate that they have been continually able to offer more “cost effective” solutions whilst at the same time providing only ever high quality European sourced components within their manufacture will always attract the genuinely interested customer to engage them in the early design stages when compared to competitors pricing structures.

Furthermore, a systems provider that actively seeks to search out and offer you “alternative cost effective” solutions in the early stages and often after contracts have been awarded will attract a lot of interest from serious customers.

A company that has continually built upon forming strategic partnerships and has actively obtained ownership within their supplier companies will be in a position to offer you prices that are attractive when compared with those sourced from other low quality, low priced non-European sources.

Is it is possible to find all of the above within one single source supplier?

YES!

With more than 110 years of in-house design and manufacturing expertise, Adept Conveyor Technologies have been providing our customers with technically advanced SOLUTIONS that satisfy and invariably exceed the customers’ expectations.

In association with our German sister company Marx-Rollentechnik GmbH we have and will continue to resist all pressures to replace our high quality components with those sourced from alternative nations; and now proudly stand alone in Australia as the sole system supplier offering at times unique, but always the highest quality products in all of our Australian designed and built conveyor equipment.  Being an associated company with Marx-Rollentechnik enables us to offer “High Quality” at equivalent prices to lower quality – lower specified alternative suppliers.

We take great pride in our ability to do as no competitor can. That is, to continually strive to be the most competitive solution provider against all Australian competitors, whilst being the ONLY provider to offer only European manufactured components within its Australian manufactured conveyor equipment range – That is something to be very proud of

You may be considering a review of your current handling methods, or simply wish to gain an understanding of what others in similar industries have undertaken to gain improved and more efficient handling methods through systems implementation.

If so, call (02) 9771 4655 to speak to a systems design engineer about your manual handling or conveyor system requirements and ask “how we can help”.

Or

To find out about the latest in conveyor system design and solutions to manual handling, visit our website and/or download our brochure.

DATE: MAY 14, 2014