What’s Brewing in Beverage Distribution?

There’s no disputing that beer is big business. According to Nielsen, “In the U.S., Americans spent more than $37 billion on beer at Nielsen-measured retail stores in the year-ended Feb. 25, 2017.” From the King of Beers to independent craft brews, the number of brands, styles and flavors of beer continues to proliferate, creating a massive, diverse, high-volume product category. Beer drinkers are spoiled for choice, but still clamor for the new and unfamiliar.  As Beverage Dynamics’ Kyle Swartz described the phenomenon, “Many consumers nowadays never even revisit good beers. That’s an actual trend being reported by brewers: people will drink a beer knowing they’ll never have it again. They only want what’s new to them.”

That puts big pressure on beverage distributors and processors, who must efficiently store, handle and ship this ever-expanding jumble of SKUs, not to mention deal with the mashup of packaging types, materials, sizes and shapes, each of which contains date- and temperature-sensitive pressurized contents.

Whether it’s bottled, canned or kegged, beer is a challenge to handle and distribute. And while processors and wholesalers may face slightly different challenges – in general, processors handle fewer SKUs but in larger volumes, and wholesalers handle a larger number of SKUs, often in lower volumes, or at the case level, or even in individual quantities – both are faced with storing and processing huge amounts of product efficiently within existing warehousing space.

That’s why UNEX creates space-saving beverage storage and handling solutions that ensure accurate inventory management; fast and easy SKU identification; labor efficiency and safety; and robust, economical operation. Here’s how:

• Gravity flow systems are dynamic storage and retrieval systems that are powered by natural gravitational mechanics, decreasing energy usage and lowering operational costs.
• Sloped rows, racks and shelves get stored product off the floor and into organized, accessible, high-density locations, reducing the amount of space, time and labor needed for fulfillment.
• Kegs, cartons or pallets are loaded into the high end of pitched lanes, and product is dispensed from back to front via controlled downward glide to the pick station, an orderly flow that optimizes FIFO inventory turnover and relieves congestion by separating load and pick aisles.
• Dispensed product is ergonomically positioned, highly visible, and easily identifiable, enhancing worker safety and increasing pick speed and accuracy.
• Systems are highly fluid, flexible and configurable, allowing responsive adjustments to accommodate changing product specs, applications or operational demands.

Gravity flow solutions from UNEX comprise a range of robust, durable keg-flow, carton-flow, and pallet-racking systems, including Span-Track, the engineered-to-order keg-flow system that makes easy work of heavy, hard-to-handle kegs.

Want to tap into the latest beer and beverage distribution solutions? See UNEX in Booth 921 at NBWA’s 80th Annual Convention and Trade Show Conference, October 8 – 11, 2017 in Las Vegas NV. Cheers!

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source http://www.unex.com/beverage-distribution/

UNEX Exhibits Order Picking Solutions at NBWA Show 2017

UNEX Manufacturing, Inc., the trusted industry leader in providing innovative order picking solutions, announces the company will be exhibiting its innovative order picking and material handling solutions in Booth 921 at the upcoming NBWA Annual Convention and Trade Show that takes place October 8 – 11, 2017 in Las Vegas. UNEX solutions help beer distributors make better use of their warehouse space, increase pick rates and speed throughput.

“As the craft beer boom continues, beer wholesalers and distributors must find ways to accommodate a growing number of SKUs in a limited space,” said Brian C. Neuwirth, VP of Sales and Marketing, UNEX Manufacturing. “Fulfilling orders as quickly as possible without damage to the products, whether packaged in cases or in various sizes of kegs, will keep the beer flowing and customers satisfied.”

UNEX Manufacturing will be exhibiting the following equipment designed for the beverage industry in Booth 921 at the NBWA show, showing distributors how to better organize their warehouse to improve visibility, accessibility and pick rates with:

• UNEX Keg Flow – A specially designed version of UNEX’s patented Span-Track that features side rails to help steady the heavy kegs, a custom hanger to provide fractional pitch and a high roller stop so that kegs don’t topple off the end. Angled label holders make product information perfectly visible to order pickers.
• Span-Wheel Bed – A universal bed of carton flow designed with UNEX’s patented Hex Hub wheels that offer maximum flexibility for a rapidly changing inventory of SKUs. Span-Track wheel beds are proven to increase throughput up to 150% to ensure beer and spirits distributors can keep up with ever-increasing demand.

UNEX solutions offer a greater storage density so distributors can handle more SKUs, picking and loading from either side of the rack for improved productivity and heavy-duty construction of racks so heavy products can be kept off the floor for better material handling. We look forward to seeing you at the NBWA show!

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source http://www.unex.com/unex-nbwa-show-2017/

10 Techniques for Order Picking Accuracy

Order picking is a numbers game…

and every second you can shave off throughput cycles, every uptick you can achieve in accuracy levels, every square foot of space you can optimize, and every penny you can save on costs translates into significant increases in efficiency and customer satisfaction.

The trick is to figure out where to find those tiny sources of error and waste and how to address them in ways that build customer confidence and contribute to bottom-line profitability.

The first step is always to assess all facets of your operation – including your processes and your culture – to determine whether there are embedded environmental obstacles that are contributing to systemic inefficiencies:

• Are your processes regularly tested and updated?
• Are there mistakes or gaps in prescribed methods or process documentation? Are workers resorting to work-arounds in an attempt to avoid built-in errors?
• Does your culture discourage questions or dissent?
• Or does honest, open communication flow both up and down?

Holding regular staff meetings (preferably with lunch and/or snacks provided) can encourage workers to share candid information about problems they encounter as well as ideas for improvement. Listen carefully, openly and positively. The folks on the front lines have the knowledge you need. Let them help you.

Here’s where the numbers come into play. To boost order picking accuracy and productivity, try these 10 techniques that can improve your odds:

1. Encourage friendly competition. Just about everyone has a competitive streak, so why not create a game or contest by posting employee throughput levels? Small, even silly prizes can contribute to the fun. Just be sure the competition stays friendly. No gloating or shaming allowed.
2. Embrace baby steps. Most improvements will come incrementally, a result of tweaks in the process, better use of technologies, or upgrades in tools or training. Work with your staff to identify and try innovative adjustments.
3. Weigh in. Implementing a weigh scale and digital verification system is one of the fastest, easiest ways to verify order picking accuracy in a large percentage of your orders.
4. Hands off the documents. Manual document handling and insertion creates significant potential for errors and waste. Using a portable document inserter (or an automated printer and inserter system) instead is a high-speed, low-cost, low-risk solution.
5. Follow the light(s). Pick-to and put-to indicators, used with goods-to-person technologies, provide easy-to-follow visual direction, which maximizes picking speed, improves order picking accuracy and even improves ergonomics.
6. Make a statement. When you’re not use goods-to-person technologies for picking, hands-free voice picking is a good solution. Headset audio directs the picker to the correct location and directs the quantity to be picked. After making the pick, the picker audibly verifies the SKU and quantity. While voice picking typically increases throughput speed only slightly, it significantly increases accuracy.
7. Play the slots. Grouping similar or related inventory items together – slotting – reduces search-and-travel time to increase speed and order picking accuracy.
8. Count on the eye in the sky. Visual scanning technology has down in cost and up in quality. By inspecting SKUs contained in each picked order for accuracy, and diverting questionable order to quality checkers, visual scanning systems reduce labor costs and improve overall accuracy, especially when dealing with small items.
9. Put WES in control. Supplementing your WMS or WCS with WES software can smooth the operational peaks and valleys among your different zones, which can reduce both equipment and labor requirements.
10. SKU maps. Active light grids map SKUs into location-based cells, then preempts errors by using light and audio alarms to alert pickers when they are in the wrong SKU location.

The goal of any picking process is to reduce the number of touches per item, with accurate one-touch picking as the ideal. UNEX offers unique solutions that can help you improve your numbers in your own distribution center. From lines picked per man-hour to order-picking accuracy to warehouse capacity to on-time order shipment, UNEX helps distribution centers improve efficiency for greater customer satisfaction and bottom-line profitability.

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source http://www.unex.com/order-picking-accuracy/

Storage in the Omni-Channel World

With the exponential growth of e-commerce orders, distribution centers have had to change their operating procedures. With storefronts closing, DCs that service brick & mortar locations only must change their order fulfillment processes to keep up with the increase of picking greater volumes of individual items. In omni-channel fulfillment, all the resources of the supply chain are focused on transparently serving a single shopper who has placed a single order.

Many traditional warehouse operations are not set up to efficiently accommodate a large range of orders with varying units and lines per order – characteristics typical of multi-channel orders. The omni-channel world needs to have orders picked quickly and accurately. Using multi-level racks for pallets, carton flow or with shelving increases the number of storage locations available for the ever-growing number of SKUs typical of an omni-channel warehouse.

High-density pick modules are often used in omni-channel warehouses. They are multi-level; a combination of mezzanines, conveyors, carton flow racks, pallet racks, static racks and other equipment that delivers goods to pickers at each level. By stacking the racks, less space on the floor is taken while pickers can take less time to pick orders from the rack of SKUs that are close by and easy to reach.

Multi-level pick modules use FIFO (first in, first out) stock rotation by using tilted shelves that uses gravity flow to deliver products to the pick face. With FIFO, order pickers are presented with the product in the right order to be picked or when you want to make sure older products (ones that have been in storage a while) are picked first.

If using carton flow in your omni-channel picking operation, cartons can be replenished from the back of the shelving while picking goes on at the front. Pickers can pick from open boxes or individual items on shelves. Pallet flow systems allow the pallet to flow forward once is has been picked. Conveyors can tie everything together in the picking operation by bringing items to the picker or transporting empty cartons and pallets away so they can be recycled. This combination of material handling solutions allows DC’s to shave valuable seconds off of each order picked and allows them to accommodate the ever-increasing demand of e-commerce channels.

At UNEX, many clients use our Pick Shelves, which are customizable and easy-to-mount, to improve pick rates. These are angled to provide clear visibility and accessibility at the pick point. Angled shelves boost picker productivity by 30% while increasing space utilization up to 50%.

A pick module system is often the best choice for a high-volume, high throughput distribution center operation – the typical omni-channel DC. Let our Pickologists help you improve your picking operations and speed throughput in your omni-channel warehouse so you can keep up with your omni-channel orders.

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source http://www.unex.com/storage-omni-channel-world/

UNEX Chosen as Finalist in Manufacturing Day Award

UNEX Manufacturing, Inc., the trusted industry leader in providing innovative order picking solutions, has been chosen as a finalist for the New Jersey Manufacturing awards in the medium-sized Manufacturer of the Year category. The New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program (NJMEP) and the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA), in conjunction with New Jersey Business magazine select the winners based on their innovative business strategies and leadership capabilities that bring value to clients and the industry as a whole.

“With the US manufacturing industry supplying over $2.18 trillion to the US economy last year, UNEX Manufacturing is proud to contribute to this growing market and to be recognized as a finalist for this prestigious manufacturing business award,” said Brian C. Neuwirth, VP of Sales and Marketing at UNEX Manufacturing. “UNEX maximizes our customers’ investments with robust, quality solutions manufactured in our state-of-the-art plant in New Jersey.”

UNEX Manufacturing designs, manufactures and installs innovative solutions for order picking, lineside storage and warehouse shelving that are cost-effective and reliable. UNEX solutions improve inventory control with easy access to parts/products, optimize storage and space in the warehouse and speed the order picking process to improve customer service.

Category winners for the New Jersey Manufacturing Awards will be announced at the “Made in New Jersey” event on October 6^th, 2017, at the Bridgewater Marriott. You can register here if you’d like to attend. This coincides with National Manufacturing Day, an annual celebration that brings together over 3000 organizations in the US, Canada and Mexico who meet to educate students, educators, business people, media and politicians about the manufacturing industry in order to improve the public’s perception of the market and to celebrate modern manufacturing.

New Jersey Business magazine has partnered with the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program (NJMEP) to profile the award finalists in the October 2017 issue of New Jersey Business. NJMEP is a not-for-profit company that works with New Jersey’s small to mid-sized manufacturers to help them become more efficient, profitable and globally competitive.

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source http://www.unex.com/manufacturing-day-award/

Speeding Up the Assembly Line

Changing customer demands are transforming the manufacturing industry where organizations must incorporate flexibility and agility into their supply chains to create value and sustainability. As customers want more custom products, quicker, manufacturers must ensure their assembly line is agile enough to meet these needs while keeping costs in check and speeding time to market. In a recent survey conducted by Grant Thorton for the National Association of Manufacturers, 48 percent of respondents say that customer demand drives their supply chain strategy, along with the need for speedy delivery and enhanced customer service.

Today’s manufacturers are measured by their superior products, excellent customer service and quick time to market. Lineside storage systems help manufacturers and assembly operations speed assembly and production to bring products to consumers as quickly and cost efficiently as possible. By storing smaller components in separate containers, workers can quickly and easily grab parts to complete their work on the assembly line.

Lineside storage systems often have sloping racks so that bins holding parts are easily visibility to workers. If the storage systems have sloping shelves containing boxes of parts, once a box is picked, the ones behind it will slide forward, ready for the next worker to pick from it. This simplifies stock replenishment and ensures you are picking the products stored first in, first, in case they have an expiration or use by date.

Manufacturers need to make sure that when the products arrive at the lineside assembly areas that they are labeled clearly and packaged well so that the contents can be easily identified. The less time it takes the assembler to visually recognize the part needed, select it, pick it and prepare to install it, the less time is wasted having to search for an item.

In an automotive assembly line, instead of individual parts delivered to the line, kits housed in totes, are brought to the workstations. These kits give workers the parts and tools necessary to complete the specific components they are building. Assemblies, such as steering wheels, can be delivered to lineside assembly areas to be installed into dashboards.

To transform your manufacturing operations and assembly areas, you need to better manage the materials in those areas – from where they come into the area, move through it and leave – which will improve productivity, quicken delivery schedules and enhance customer satisfaction. Employees will be less frustrated not having to search for a particular part to finish their assembly.

UNEX provides lineside storage solutions that improve your assembly line’s Pickability. When customization is high in your operations, having the ability to store additional SKUs in the assembly area means pickers don’t have to travel to find the right part, speeding fulfillment rates. Efficiencies and productivity are increased as well. Speedier part turnover means speedier lines and happier customers.

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source http://www.unex.com/speeding-assembly-line/

Shelf Track Wheel Bed: Free Infeed Guides!

UNEX Manufacturing, Inc., the trusted industry leader in providing innovative order picking solutions, announces a promotion for the UNEX Shelf Track solution, a durable carton flow system that drops easily into existing racks and shelves within warehouses, manufacturing plants and distribution centers. Five free infeed “shark fin” guides are included free for each level of Shelf Track wheel bed purchased. UNEX’s Shelf Track is guaranteed to decrease pick times and increase your operation’s efficiency when compared to unreliable plastic wheel rails.

 

“Our infeed guides provide a unique, easy to use solution to a very common storage problem,” said Brian C. Neuwirth, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at UNEX Manufacturing. “Each guide easily snaps in place along the width of the panels, providing a visual indicator for an SKU’s location, keeping inventory organized in its designated lane.  The guides prevent hang-ups in neighboring lanes from off-center products, allowing cartons and products to smoothly flow forward for faster order picking.”

Now through September 30, 2017, the UNEX Shelf Track promotion will include five infeed guide accessories added for no cost for each level of wheel bed purchased.

 

UNEX Shelf Track offers wheel beds with its patented Hex Hub wheel design to increase flexibility for slotting, providing 90% left to right bay usage. The wheel beds allow cartons to flow forward when the carton in front is removed, preventing the worker from having to reach into the rack to pull it forward, which can cause stress on the worker’s back. UNEX Shelf Track works well with seasonal merchandise when you get odd-sized boxes that you typically don’t store.

“If companies are using plastic wheel rails in their order picking operations, they’re familiar with wheel failures, rails bowing from being loaded over their capacity, and poor restart from imprinting,” said Neuwirth. “Our Shelf Track wheel beds, combined with the infeed guides, provides these companies with a superior solution that can stand up to the stresses of their storage environment.”

UNEX Shelf Track’s sturdy track is more durable for order picking operations than plastic wheel rails used by competitors. Often, the weight of cartons imprint onto cartons making dimples so that the product can’t flow forward.  As carton flow systems are used in many order picking processes, workers expect the pick face to always have product there. Plus, when working with products that have expiration dates, Shelf Track for carton flow facilitates first in/first out (FIFO) movements so that products are stored and picked in the right sequence.

To get more details or request a quote, click the button below!

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source http://www.unex.com/shelf-track-free-infeed-guides/