Do You Need a Material Flow Analysis?

How often do you take a step back and examine everything happening in your facility? How often do you really think not only about what you are doing, but who is doing it, why they are doing it, where they are doing it, when they are doing it, and how? The answer is that you are probably not doing it frequently enough.

We work with companies across the country to examine these questions – specifically regarding how products travel in, through, and out of a facility – with our Material Flow Analysis. These analyses can offer insight into your throughput rates, labor challenges, and process optimization as we take our wealth of engineering and operations knowledge and apply it to custom-designed solutions built specifically to help you address your business challenges.

As a material handling integrator and a full-service warehouse equipment provider with design capabilities, we are uniquely positioned to examine how products can flow into a facility, get stored, then shipped out, and how to maximize all aspects of that process.

Any distribution center that does not utilize automation is an ideal candidate for material flow analysis. However, even fulfillment centers that adopt the latest and most significant technological advances may not be operating to their fullest potential.

Ultimately, you may need a material flow analysis if…

…Your fulfillment center canot meet the required volume that customers are now demanding. With the rise of e-commerce, orders are coming in faster and smaller than ever, and fulfillment centers can struggle to make that shift from shipping pallets worth of products out to handling broken case picking and individual shipping. For some, that means an entire business model shift. For others, it may just mean taking a look at how your products come in and move throughout your facility.

…You cannot internally justify investments in new technology or material handling equipment. No fair analysis can be complete without offering advice for further action. With every evaluation we provide, we also include a business case to adopt any new storage medium or technology. We consider this a ‘roadmap to ROI,’ a document that can shed some light on when your investment will start paying off. It may be sooner than you think.

…You know your processes are not entirely efficient, and you don’t know where to start. This situation is a common challenge for warehouses and fulfillment centers at any stage. You know that you need to change, but you do not know which direction you should take. That hesitancy is usual, especially for taking on a new initiative like material flow optimization. That is why you contact Storage Solutions – we have the experience to help you take that first step toward examining your operations.

Now What?

Most fulfillment centers have some need for improvement in terms of material flow, even more so now that e-commerce is rising at the rate it is. We would love to have one of our expert team members tour your facility, learn about the challenges you are facing, and provide you with a roadmap to improve these inefficiencies.

Each day without an optimized material flow within your facility costs hard dollars associated with the additional labor costs you see, along with the soft costs that come with sub-optimal spacing, flow, and unnecessary touches. However, by agreeing to conduct a material flow analysis with Storage Solutions, you are putting the first foot forward to solving your operational challenges.