Having worked in manufacturing and logistical management for more than a few years, I have had the opportunity to observe many automatic and semi-automatic material handling systems in operation. Some systems approach optimum performance and I would be hard pressed to suggest improvement, while with some other layouts, I am fortunate to have enough experience to be able to recommend process revisions. This article is about just such an application in the form of pail filling lines.
By way of background, I will explain how a bucket or pail filling line works. Empty pails are placed onto an infeed conveyor and are indexed forward to be filled. The product (paint, food, soap or what have you) to be placed in the pail is typically in a viscous or powdered form and is dispensed from above in a pre-measured amount as the pail passes underneath. The pail is then capped and (usually) palletized.
Sounds pretty simple doesnt it? Its not rocket science certainly but there are some nuances that affect the process.
Assuming a company is using a five-gallon pail with the wire handles attached, the pails arrive palletized and nested so that there may be in the vicinity of twelve stacks of buckets strapped down to a pallet and shrink wrapped.
Getting these pails onto a filling line has to date proven to be a manual process of removing them one stack at a time from the pallet to the infeed conveyor area and A. Have a person manually separate them and place them singly on the infeed conveyor.
B. Have a person manually place a stack into the infeed of a horizontal pail denester*.
C. Have a person manually place a stack into the infeed of a vertical pail denester.
*(A denester is a bucket separation apparatus or machine)
One common thread remains however, and that is the individual required to manually depalletize the pails. This directly affects the return on investment for the existing denester and frankly, I find it inconsistent that a filling line should be automated yet still require a dedicated employee for the pail infeed. Deeming it a cost justifiable project, I undertook the effort to design a system whereby this process could be automated in order to save my clients time and money and to complete the cycle of automation seen in the rest of the filling line.
The process of automating the empty pail infeed is such that there are a number of pallets containing the stacks of empty pails placed on an infeed conveyor at which time the encapsulating wrapping and dunnage are removed. The pallets are then indexed forward into the work cell that depalletizes them and places them into an in-line denester (that is much more diminutive and less expensive than the traditional horizontal and vertical models) and are dispensed directly onto the filling line. Once emptied, the pallet is conveyed away and this process repeats itself. The infeed pallet conveyor and empty outgoing pallet accumulation is configured to accommodate enough volume that it need only be tended to once per shift allowing for a forklift operator to utilize approximately ten to fifteen minutes to keep the line operating as opposed to eight hours per shift.
The benefits of this system are obvious in the form of a very substantial increase in profitability, a one to five year return on investment, dramatic labor saving effects and a reduction in the probability of employee injury and workmans compensation claims. Additionally, this equipment is such that it can be fully integrated with an existing denester, should the client already possess one.
Franklin is the owner of Industrial Supply Services, LLC a facility layout design company specializing in material handling flow solutions and logistical management.
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