We are firm believers in the power of the gravity conveyor. Sometimes level - sometimes with an incline - but always giving a easier way of moving goods. We go back to Industrial Revolution and look at how Packhorses - and then the Horse and Cart - carried goods along the pot-holed roads (it was pretty bad back then too!) Then - along came the canals. Suddenly one horse could pull a load 50 times the weight with little effort. The Gravity Conveyor gives the human a similar advantage. One person can move 20 totes along the conveyor - whilst maintaining the goods at a convenient lifting height.
However - is there a good way and a bad way to use conveyors? There isn't really a bad way - but you need to keep studying the number of transfers that your operators have to make along your process line. Just to illustrate this, here we show a gravity conveyor leading into the packing station - where the the goods are transferred from picking trollies to the holding conveyor:
It may look efficient, but the totes still need to be moved along the conveyor - and this may divert the packing operator from his packing task.
If we then compare this with a conveyor used to move the packed goods away from the packing station - with the picked goods remaining on the trolley - we can see that the number of transfers has be reduced. The packing operator now stays within 1 metre of their packing station - which leads to increased productivity.
In practice, this inclined conveyor can be shared with 8 or 12 other packing stations - which further improves it's value. So our conclusion is - study the transfers and the people movements - and you will see how a conveyor will best fit into your operation.
And feel free to give a call - we will be glad to help!
