Most Recent Articles

In October, Newcastle Systems’ own Kevin Ledversis was on a team of presenters in a webinar that dug into the challenges managers are facing with labor issues – sourcing, hiring, training and retaining in addition to things like performance and pay.  We’ve covered labor and staffing as a regular topic here over the years, and think the data that was assembled for this webinar is worth sharing widely.

It’s not in our culture here to talk about ourselves too much, nor our products. We especially don’t like talking about OTHER products because we like to think ours can speak for themselves. That’s why nearly everything we publish here in our blog and white papers are about the things we know that help our readers the most – things like process, automation, warehouse management, lean practices, and more. And we always enjoy the feedback we get year-to-year that tells us you want more content like that, especially in regards to process and measurement.

This week we are sharing a guest blog by Chris Crane of Excelsior Integrated.

Improving your product delivery can have a substantial impact on your customer satisfaction and overall success. If you want to grow your business, then you will want to evaluate your shipping methods, among many other aspects that can delay your products getting to your customer's front door.

Theft from the supply chain is an old problem that even the newest facilities can’t entirely eliminate. A recent arrest in the Seattle area showed just how big a dent a small group of industrious thieves can make in even the biggest player in the industry.

The latest news from Newcastle Systems includes "No assembly required".  We have improved the delivery process by assembling the workstations in our manufacturing plant and packaging them for you to unpack in minutes. You can easily have the mobile workstation with portable power unpacked and rolling in minutes. We have assembly manuals, but soon they will become obsolete.

Wasted Motion does not happen all at one time - it may be 20 seconds here and 10 seconds there, making it extremely difficult to identify.  Simple examples of wasted motion include:

• Walking to a printer to print labels
• Walking to a computer to access data 
• Walking to a static desk to dimension product

Not only is this waste hard to identify, it's also very costly over the course of a year.

Warehouse design and management are an art form and  science unto their own. 3PLs and large retailers, in particular, have taken what was once a slow-moving, unseen part of a cost-center in the business and turned it into a highly efficient, increasingly automated, carefully measured and service-focused asset. Manufacturers, on the other hand, while being at the leading edge of automation, measurement and efficiency on the production floor, may not always apply the same level of industrial design planning and management as they would normally demand.

As it turns out, warehouse operations for a manufacturing facility have a lot of similarities as other types of businesses, but do have some requirements that are unique to their needs.

Managing power supplies can always be a challenge. There are a lot of variables involved, especially when you want your power to be cordless and mobile. There are competing needs – in some scenarios, there is a constant need for more power as the number of devices, their features and their wireless needs grow, but traditionally this results in more weight. At the same time, many devices use less power than ever, allowing for smaller and smaller power packs to meet the need, but can be more expensive using the new chemistries and form factors they require.