Most Recent Articles

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.

As a major pillar of the distribution industry, shippers and logistics service providers are a critical element of any business’ customer satisfaction goals. But as a facility manager or a business that relies on a shipping partner to help you meet your service goals, how much information do you share between you in order to ensure you can make the relationship as productive as possible? A recent industry survey by Descartes Systems Group, a solutions provider for fleet management operations, provides some useful insights.

Last week we shared with everyone a short video we made to demonstrate a new innovation in warehouse automation we are calling “Follow Me” (see it again here). It’s a drive engine mounted on one of our mobile-powered carts – but with a twist. Rather than start and stop using physical controls, the “Follow Me” feature enables the cart to follow the operator at their own pace, starting and stopping as they do. We were drawn to looking deeper into this because of the potential for hands-free applications, especially for picking in conjunction with a voice-collection system or for other tasks like inventory or inspection and maintenance.

Product Development is a challenge for any business, but especially for small manufacturers. While there are reams of data and statistics out there showing you how many products fail every year, and how daunting the percentages are (and to be honest, there is a lot of disagreement on these numbers), there is relatively little mention of the challenges of coming up with your new product in the first place.