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Sept. 30, 2015 — Originally founded in 1929 as a residential gas service company, Maine Oxy has expanded into a leading distributor of industrial, medical, and specialty gases and quality hardgoods, including welding and cutting equipment, supplies, and accessories.
In addition to multiple sales and manufacturing locations, Maine Oxy currently operates 15 store locations providing gases and hardgoods to a variety of consumers, including construction companies, hospitals, ship builders, and small garages.
The company, dedicated to providing the most current technologies at competitive prices, was in the development stages for a SpecAir gas manufacturing laboratory but was struggling to find room for expansion within its Auburn, Maine, facility. While contemplating a building expansion, Maine Oxy turned its attention to warehouse optimization.
The 6,500-square-foot central warehouse in the Auburn facility houses and distributes hardgoods such as regulators, welding consumables, and safety items. With hardgoods stored in standard rack and shelving, workers would travel throughout the shelving and up and down ladders, collecting the parts they needed to fulfill an order. “It was a space-consuming, time-intensive process,” said Brian Painchaud, inventory control manager, Maine Oxy.
The company installed one Shuttle XP Vertical Lift Module (VLM) from Kardex Remstar to house nearly half of the hardgoods inventory. “The Shuttle XP consolidated our small parts, opening up 2,000 square feet for the SpecAir laboratory, saving us the expense of a brick-and-mortar building expansion,” Painchaud said.
The space saved in the warehouse allowed Maine Oxy to establish one of the largest specialty gas laboratories in New England. With an ISO/IEC 17025:2005-accredited laboratory and production facility, the SpecAir Gases and Technologies division has introduced a line of environmentally friendly refillable products, leading the industry in replacing disposable calibration gas cylinders with refillables.
In addition to the saved floor space, Maine Oxy is now able to fill more orders. The hardgoods central warehouse still requires three workers to pick and pack orders, but it has increased the stores it supports from 10 to 15 and its customer base has grown. “Since the implementation of the Shuttle VLM orders have increased by 40 percent, the Shuttle has allowed us to support this growth without additional labor,” Painchaud said.
The Shuttle VLM delivers items to the worker at an ergonomic pick window, reducing the use of ladders. Previously, picking smaller parts from the shelving often required a worker to climb the ladder to the item location and then pick a small quantity from the bulk inventory. It was tedious work to do on a ladder. Now the worker stands firmly on the ground while counting out the number of items needed to fulfill the order. “Picking and counting while on a ladder wasn’t ideal,” Painchaud said. "Workers are safer and more efficient picking items from the VLM.”
The order fulfillment process hasn’t changed much, but delivering the parts to the worker has increased the speed of picking. Orders are received from a store or through the inside sales department and entered into TIMS (Total Inventory Management System). A pick ticket prints in the central hardgoods warehouse, where one of the three workers fills the order. The VLM holds smaller parts (1,700 SKUs), while the larger items are stored on shelving (2,000 SKUs).
Each SKU required is marked with a specific bin location. The worker first visits the Shuttle VLM and types in the tray number identified on the pick ticket using the keypad controller. The Shuttle VLM delivers the tray to the worker and the worker uses the bin location on the pick ticket to identify where on the tray the required item is located. “The VLM delivers the items to the worker, eliminating walking and searching through shelving,” Painchaud said. "Because of this time savings we are able to fill more orders per day.”
After picking required items from the Shuttle, the worker travels through the shelving to collect the rest of the items. Once all of the required items are picked, the worker delivers the order to the shipping area, where it is quality checked, packed, and shipped according to the customer's shipping preference.
Although the VLM was originally purchased to free up floor space and avoid a building expansion, the productivity and ergonomic benefits have allowed the central hardgoods warehouse to manage growth. “Without the VLM I’m not sure how we would have kept up with our recent growth. As we continue to expand our business, we would surely consider additional VLMs to further increase our efficiencies,” Painchaud said.
Kardex Remstar, LLC, a company of the Kardex Group, is a leading provider of automated storage and retrieval systems for manufacturing, distribution, warehousing, offices, and institutions. For more information, visit www.kardexremstar.com.
