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Nov 13, 2024

Metal Supplier Boosts Warehouse Efficiency At New Facility

October 15, 2024 When Central Steel & Wire (CS&W) decided to move from the Chicago facility that had been its home for 80 years, it envisioned creating a state-of-the-art product depot and service

October 15, 2024

When Central Steel & Wire (CS&W) decided to move from the Chicago facility that had been its home for 80 years, it envisioned creating a state-of-the-art product depot and service center that used the industry’s most efficient material handling technology. As member of the Ryerson Family of Companies, CS&W supplies high-quality metal products and services for a wide range of customers from job shops to large OEMs. The move would be a major transformation for the company because it was leaving behind a labor-intensive method of material handling in favor of using automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to move its wide range of metal products.

“For the first time in the metal service center business, we brought in AGVs to replace standard material handling equipment,” said Nicole Giesie, CS&W’S vice president of operations. “It allowed us to use driverless vehicles to store and pull materials to fulfill customer orders.”

The greatest benefits from the use of AGVs, however, could only be realized by developing a new facility that incorporated racking with consistent pocket locations, evenly distributed and available throughout the location.

The presence of damaged racking arms in the existing facility would also have reduced the effectiveness of the AGVs, Giesie noted.

While AGVs require a significant investment, there is a substantial payoff in increased material handling efficiency and accuracy, reduced labor, and decreased damage to racking, equipment, and structures.

“With AGVs, we were able to utilize our workforce in other value-added tasks rather than just moving metal throughout the facility,” Giesie explained.

Initial design discussions for the new facility began in August 2021, and included requirements relating to the use of AGVs in a 900,000-square-foot facility that would be developed in southern Chicagoland’s Village of University Park.

The new University Park facility would need 18,000 storage locations to accommodate 6,000 product SKUs that have a combined weight of 50 million pounds of carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum, and specialty metals. Space was also needed for value-added work, such as precision cutting and tube laser operations.

For storage of all that metal, CS&W looked at racking manufacturers throughout the U.S., and then selected Steel King Industries, a manufacturer of storage rack and material handling products. The two companies had a long-standing relationship, in that CS&W supplies steel for Steel King’s products.

“Based on our existing strong relationship with Steel King, its reputation for reliability and for manufacturing extremely durable racking, and its engineering expertise, we found them to have the best solution for our needs,” said Giesie.

Another factor that would work to CS&W’s advantage was the involvement of Steel King dealer Container Systems, Inc. of suburban Chicago.

“This was an extremely large project for Central Steel & Wire,” Giesie said. “We needed a reliable partner to ensure success, and Container Systems proved to be that partner. In a project of this size, there is a lot that can go wrong, dealing with a lot of different contractors, equipment vendors, etc. Having Container Systems involved removed that burden from us, and kept the project moving forward to the point that installation was completed ahead of schedule.”

The new facility uses Steel King’s I-beam cantilever racking for 1,300 uprights, and guard rail products. I-beam cantilever steel storage racks allow access from both sides. This design saves horizontal space normally lost to rack structure, reduces fork truck damage, and allows for faster load and unload times.

The Steel King I-beam cantilever racking is built for longevity, with structural steel construction and a 50,000 psi minimum yield. A heavy arm connector plate and bolted column-to-base connections adds to durability. Metal services businesses often use I-beam cantilever racking to store items such as pipe, tubing, rolls, steel bars, sheet steel, and structural members.

The cantilever racking is comprised of more than 1,000 double-sided columns, more than 30,000 arms and more than 15,000 linear feet of structural metal for guard rails.

“It took 70 truckloads to deliver the racking and guard rail elements – all which came at a pace whereby installers never had to stop their work,” commented Mike Scarlati of Container Systems.

“This was a huge order, and what made it work was Steel King’s ability to get their product out on time, so installers always had buildable material on hand,” added Scarlati.

“The racking system was able to have narrower aisles – and thus have a greater storage density – through an engineering solution designed by Steel King,” said Kurt Larson, the company’s regional sales manager for the central U.S. “Our engineers designed notches in rails to guide Combilift AGV vehicles, which meant that more space could be dedicated to racking rather than to aisles.”

“The new racking system is allowing CS&W to operate more efficiently and with greater productivity,” Larson added. “It also will let the company adjust racking to meet changing needs. In their former facility, the racking elements were all welded, so adjustments could not be made. With our system, they’ll be able to reconfigure the racking to accommodate changing storage needs.”

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Working with an experienced partner that is able to tailor industry best practice solutions to their specific requirements can benefit metal companies like CS&W that seek to dramatically improve the efficiency of their material handling.

Building Design & Construction, Facilities Management, FacilityBlog, Featured, New Facilities Construction, Retrofits

AGVs, Automated Guided Vehicles, Cantilever Racking, Central Steel & Wire, Chicago, Container Systems, material handling, Metal Supplier, Product Depot, Steel King, University Park, Warehouse Efficiency, warehouse facilities

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