Customer

Magneti Marelli Powertrain USA located in Sanford, NC is an international leader in the design and production of high-tech component systems and modules for the automotive, surface vehicle and marine industries. Some typical products include fuel pump modules and electronic throttle systems.

Challenge

Magneti Marelli's challenge was to improve shipping accuracy by ensuring all shipping and product identification labels were applied correctly to its corresponding outbound material pallet. Although this process seems simple, an incorrect product identification label on a pallet can be extremely costly for their final customer such as Harley Davidson that have to halt production when they open a pallet to discover that it's the wrong part.

A typical Magneti shipment consists of multiple pallets with at least 2 labels being applied to each pallet. One team would pack outgoing product orders in large boxes with several layers of foam. Another team would then inspect the outgoing orders, (which also included printing and applying shipping and product identifications labels to the outgoing pallets). During this process, the inspector would have to walk approximately 30 - 40 steps to another room to print out the labels and then walk back again to apply the labels.

Solution

Magneti Marrelli worked with The Danby Group, a reseller of industrial barcoding, printing and scanning products to find the ideal solution to ensure accurate product labeling while eliminating unnecessary footsteps to and from the label printer. A portable battery-operated belt printer was proposed, but the volume of labels needed required a much larger mobile printing system.


The Danby Group selected the Newcastle Systems PC Series Mobile Powered Picking Workstation and Zebra 105SL Label Printing System. Newcastle Systems' PC Series is a mobile workstation designed to hold and power a variety of equipment including a computer, industrial printer, barcode scanner up to 8 hours of normal use. This provides a workstation that allows operators to perform their tasks wirelessly in a facility, warehouse or distribution center.


Result

Now, the inspectors can automatically scan and print labels on-demand. The new system has eliminated unnecessary travel "to and from" a static workstation. (The chance of human error has been significantly reduced - thereby improving accuracy). In seconds, the inspector can easily maneuver the workstation directly to the next pallet to continue the work process.

For more information about Magneti Marelli, please visit their website at www.marelliusa.com.