A clear sign of a successful site
September 1st 2004

Warehouse signing and marking making a key contribution to safety and productivity. IP&E hears from Tony Gresty, managing director of ASG Services

Effective warehouse operations are a central feature of today’s manufacturing and supply operations. The efficient movement of goods inwards to storage - both for short and long term requirements - and their accurate retrieval for onward delivery, is fundamental to the success of many organisations. Yet with the trend towards larger, more centralised activities, operational efficiency has become only one of the aims that organisations in the industry need to fulfil. Also at the top of the list is safety - and the larger and more intensive operations become, the greater its significance.

ASG Services has for many years played an increasingly active role in this field. The Warrington-based organisation has deliberately expanded the range of warehouse services it supplies notably signage, lanemarking and labelling in response to what it sees as a growing requirement from the industry to turn to organisations that can provide a wide understanding of safety issues and procedures.

Tony Gresty is managing director and believes there are a number of key principles that should be accommodated as part of a safe warehousing environment

These include the separation of storage, forklift truck operational and pedestrian areas with clearly defined boundaries - often best achieved by paying close attention to durable and effective floor marking, he says. Additionally, clear identification of locations within racking, shelving and bulk storage areas is vital as is the allocation of sufficient capacity in the storage facility for anticipated stock holding levels. The latter, he believes, can help minimise the risk of goods having to be stored adjacent to specific locations because of, perhaps, insufficient racking capacity and is often seen most where seasonal variations dictate. Creating storage areas of the right size, he points out, is also one of the key considerations we take into account when we design layouts for bulk stacking facilities.

Accurate labelling - from a simple visual check for the forklift operator to a means of communicating stockholding levels back to the computerised warehouse management system - is also vital, he adds and points to ASG’s range of coloured labels and their floor-embedded counterparts as key examples that respectively offer high visibility and accurate identification. In all cases the company specifies materials with durability in mind to accommodate the rigours of a busy warehouse environment.

Tony Gresty’s view is that companies see major benefits in being able to deal with a single supplier who is able to meet a range of the requirements discussed above.

Clearly this not only gives access to the most suitable products but also brings with it a degree of understanding of the regulatory issues involved, as well as helping to ensure that all elements are complementary. This minimises the risk, Tony feels by way of example, of labelling supplied by different organisations failing to work in unison.

The success being enjoyed by distributor Ray C Smith in Northamptonshire - which has seen growth from 17 000 sq. ft. in 1996 to a bonded warehouse covering more than 350 000 sq. ft. today - is a prime example of an organisation that has worked closely with ASG Services to fulfil its marking and signage requirements. The organisation provides a range of distribution services for customers primarily in the food, plastic container packaging and greeting card sectors and needs to accommodate both long term storage and rapid call off requirements.

The installation that the ASG team has completed includes both racking and floorembedded labels - that, significantly, interface with the computer-controlled stock management system - as well as aisle markers and internal line marking in key areas of the premises. Dale Church, who is responsible at ASG for the floor marking design, explains:

Apart from defining 12 separate load assembly zones in the despatch areas, we have created 259 separate bulk stacking locations. In all cases, he adds, our two part epoxy coating has been used after controlled shot-blasting to provide the optimum blend of rapid installation and long life performance - of particular importance with continuous forklift truck movements.

Depending upon product type, each bulk stacking location can accommodate between 81 and 135 individual pallets and is identified by the circular floor embedded label which incorporates a bar-code - scanned as the product is moved in and out of the bulk storage area. The separate pallet racking section also benefits from ASG’s high visibility two letter identification labelling as well as, again, individual barcoded labels located at each pallet position.

With safety correctly seen as a critical element of a successful warehouse operation, the ‘single source’ advantages offered by ASG Services for installations such as at Ray C Smith are clear cut. As relevant in the distribution sector as in any area of warehousing, they represent an important element in this constantly growing sector of the materials handling industry.

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