Material Handling – Finished Paper Roll Handling System
PROJECT
Finished Paper Roll Handling System
CUSTOMER
Appleton Papers, Inc.
Objectives
- Evaluate and prove the AEM system’s ability to meet the design throughput requirement of 5100 rolls per day.
- Identify any deficiencies (bottlenecks) in the system flow and determine potential design improvements.
- Assist with controls development, including flow logic and AEM path zoning to insure design throughput objective is reached.
- Evaluate each order sortation area’s ability to meet the design throughput requirement.
Description
System 1: Automated Electrified Monorail (AEM) delivery of cut paper rolls from nine rewinders to seven wrapping machines.
System 2: AEM delivery of wrapped paper rolls from seven wrapping machines to four order sortation areas.
System 3: Palletized order sortation using semiautomated bridge cranes.
“Bottom Line” Results
System can achieve 5100 rolls per day requirement Detennined optimum dispatch locations for empty AEM vehicles. Developed dispatch algorithm for empty vehicle selection of rewinder pick-up location. Developed AEM path flow logic to minimize vehicle flow restrictions through the following methods:
- AEM track zoning
- Vehicle priorities
- Pick-up/Drop-off decision logic
Determined minimum vehicle requirements of 12 for system ‘1 and 15 for system 12. Vehicle costs were $80,000 and $30,000 for systems ‘1 and 12, respectively.