The Small Parts Pro

Gettting ‘Small Part’ Specific

Are you storing an increasing number of small parts and getting squeezed for space? This post will focus on areas that use standard steel shelving to store parts, either in plastic bins, cardboard boxes or loose on the shelf and offer ideas to increase storage efficiency and save space.

Usually, when you look at your shelving, you see a lot of ‘air’ above the parts and in half-filled bins or boxes. You may also see parts hidden behind other parts and areas of the shelving where it is hard to see exactly what is there. The left side of the image below shows:  (1) Hidden areas that are hard to see, (2) Poor lighting at the back of shelves, (3) Shelves blocking full visibility of products, (4) Unused, wasted space between shelves.

You can gain space and, at the same time, make it easier to find and identify your parts by using drawers in your existing shelving units. The right side of the image above shows:  (1) Shelf spacing sized to fit your product more exactly, with roll-out shelves to access items on the bottom level, (2) Smaller shelf spacing at eye level for mid-sized products, (3) Drawer units that offer full visibility of all products, (4) Reduced wasted space between shelves.

Converting your existing shelving into modular drawer storage units saves space and increases storage capacity. You will also have better access to smaller parts, better visibility, easier picking and faster inventory counts.

This is accomplished using drawer adapter brackets, manufactured by Rousseau Metal. These brackets are available to fit most shelving brands and allow installation of a full line of heavy duty modular parts drawers and compartment accessories.

The Rousseau modular drawers are available in true North American dimensions to match existing shelf sizes, from 18” and 24” deep and from 30” to 48” wide. There are 10 drawer heights available from 3” to 14” high with the usable inside height being 1” less than the face dimension. The adapter brackets to support the drawers are available from 12” high to 48” high and you can install any combination of drawer heights that will match the bracket height.

In a typical application, you would install a 36” to 48″ high group of drawers in an existing shelving unit. This set of drawers can be customized to suit your products.  The most common application will have a set 7 drawers with heights from 4” to 8” high.  All the drawers have full extension, so the full depth of the drawer is visible when open. These 7 drawers can replace the space taken by up to 3 shelving units, 36″ w x 12″ deep, in most systems.

So, by moving smaller parts into these drawers, you can recover several shelves worth of space in another unit. This creates the space to add another bank of drawers in the empty unit. Moving along this way, unit by unit, you can move inventory into more efficient drawer storage, leaving empty units left over at the end for new products.

For help with designing a specific application, email us at support@innovostorage.com

Innovo Storage Systems 1 Goldsmith Street Johnston, RI 02919 (401) 383-0883

So, you are running out of space… What do you do now?
The first thoughts are often to find more space somewhere outside your existing building. You can consider options such as: Putting on an addition to your existing building; Renting storage containers for temporary use, Relocating to a larger facility; Using a logistics or fulfillment company to outsource a part of your operation to another location. All are reasonable options and one may be the best alternative for you. However, you should always evaluate the simplest and easiest option first.

You should FIRST look at optimizing your existing space.
There are very few warehouses, stockrooms and manufacturing facilities that are using their space to maximum efficiency and there are a few basic ideas that you can review quickly to see if there opportunities within your own facility to ‘find’ space that is not being used. It may look bad at first, but there are ways to find unused space in almost any building.

Here are a few of the basic ways to reclaim storage space:

1. Discard or Sell Off Obsolete Inventory
Look at your slowest moving items and compare the profit generated from sales or use of these items to the cost of acquiring new storage space to keep them. Ask yourself “Would I build, buy, or rent new space just for these items?” If the answer is , “No,” consider selling these items at a discount or just disposing of them.

2. Review Your Stock Level Policies
Purchasing policies should be examined for opportunities to reduce on hand inventory by: reducing overstock levels; making smaller but more frequent purchases; or using vendor monitored just-in-time stock level programs.

3. Consider Upgrading Inventory and Order Picking Software Systems
Newer software systems allow you store items in the most efficient manner, with similar sized items stored together, rather than using a strict numerical sequencing of products or category grouping. This allows you to maximize space utilization and have the software supply product location information for efficient order picking routes.

4. Look for Air Space Above Existing Operations
In many facilities there is unused space in the areas above stock room shelving, pick rack modules, assembly and packing areas, shipping and receiving docks, etc. Installing a mezzanine over these areas or extending the existing racks to higher levels can add significant usable space to your facility.

5. Review your Storage Equipment and Systems
The overall goal would be to increase storage density by looking for alternative storage options such as: closer shelf spacing; smaller bin storage sizes; converting from conventional shelving to drawer cabinets or drawers in shelving; using product specific racking for special items, etc.

In upcoming posts, we will look at some of these ideas in more detail and offer specific ideas to help you create space where none seemed to exist before.

Innovo Storage Systems 1 Goldsmith Street Johnston, RI 02919 (401) 383-0883

So, you have decided to opt for maximum space utilization by organizing and storing your parts or inventory items by size, rather than in numerical order. This will allow you to customize the shelf spacing and the modular drawer heights for each group of components. But now, you think it may be harder to find items than it was when they were in straight numerical order. Well, let me help with some ideas that may actually decrease the time it takes to find items.

First of all, we should all be using computers to help us track our inventory. There are many off the shelf inventory tracking programs that allow you to record item number, type, vendor, cost, stock levels and, most important for our purpose here, storage location. A simple data base can be created to serve the same purpose or even a spreadsheet with the key pieces of information. Once entered, the information in a spreadsheet can be sorted by part number, enabling you to look up the location of any part on screen or on a printout. Many software programs now allow you to print picking lists in location order, rather than by part number.

Beyond using the computer, there are other ways to organize your components to minimize search time in your stock area.

1. If you can obtain an analysis of your fastest moving items (your Top 20%), those items can be moved to the most convenient location for picking. These typically make up 80% of the active picks and you can reduce search and retrieval time considerably.
2. You can group items by type, making it easier for workers to find items that way. Shelving can be labeled or color coded to indicate the type of product. In modular drawer systems, each group of drawers, or even individual drawers, can be labeled or color coded by type for faster access to different product groups.
3. Instead of organizing strictly by type, you can group by size and then type. For example, storing a group of bolts that can range from #6 (very tiny) to 1″ diameter (very big) in the same drawer or on the same shelf makes sense logically (keeping all the Bolts together), but not with respect to space efficiency. Storing all those tiny #6 bolts, along with their matching nuts, washers and lock washers together will be the most efficient use of space.
4. The use of Drawers-in-Shelving can increase the number of items that can be stored in the same amount of space. Designing a drawer layout to match the size of the items you need to store will maximize the efficiency of your storage. More items in less space means less walking and less searching to find the right item.

Keep in mind that every business operation is unique. These general guidelines can help you get started, but we encourage you to engage the people who will actually be working in this area to provide new ideas and feedback with their suggestions. Having everyone fully involved in implementing a new system will ensure a smoother implementation.

Visit our website to learn more about 5s lean organization.

Innovo Storage Systems 1 Goldsmith Street Johnston, RI 02919 (401) 383-0883