Engineering Custom Solutions for Your Biggest DC Challenges

Throughput, uptime and productivity are all performance attributes that can make or break distribution, fulfillment and manufacturing operations. If your DC is not hitting its daily targets in each of these areas, your customer service levels can suffer, labor costs can rise, and profits can quickly erode. To maximize performance in these areas, many companies are investing in proven technologies and installing new equipment or systems. But in a world where no two fulfillment operations are alike, sometimes standard solutions alone can’t address the most challenging (or unique) business requirements. 

That’s why Lifecycle Support Services at Honeywell Intelligrated offers Engineered Solutions: comprised of material handling, software and control engineers dedicated to creating custom solutions to the biggest challenges confronting DC operators. Before making investments in equipment and technology, we’ve always believed it’s important to first gain a clear understanding of the current state of your operations and your company’s short- and long-term goals. Then, with those goals in mind, Engineered Solutions allows you to put the industry’s most experienced and knowledgeable practitioners to work on your specific fulfillment problem, scenario or upgrade.

Multidisciplinary expertise and services

Whether you’re trying to meet peak season demand levels, adapt to new product profiles, or achieve new levels of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), Engineered Solutions provides a wide range of professional services to address your specific challenges. These services include:

• Technical documentation — clearly understand the business case, define the problem, and document the solution
• Engineering support — multidisciplinary team with expertise in mechanical, electrical, controls, software delivery, optimum system improvements, modifications and upgrades
• Project management — dedicated project liaisons oversee every phase of project implementation, from discovery and solution design to installation and commissioning
• Installation teams — with miles of conveyor lines, sortation equipment and automation systems installed, our installation teams aren’t satisfied until your solution passes their rigorous acceptance testing

This full range of capabilities equips the Engineered Solutions team to assess your business requirements and develop custom, cost-effective solutions that will increase the effectiveness of your fulfillment operations. 

Customization adds value

Let’s take a look at one example where a customer came to us to evaluate a conveyor system which was unable to provide sufficient shipping capacity during peak seasons. Their existing system was primarily designed to function as a loop sorter for receiving purposes, but during peak seasons when the operational focus shifted to meeting additional throughput volumes, this loop sorter was largely underutilized. 

Instead of recommending that the customer invest in an all-new shipping conveyor system, Honeywell Intelligrated provided an engineered solution that reconfigured the receiving conveyor to function as a shipping conveyor when needed — giving the customer the ability to change the direction and function of the conveyor system, depending on needs. Not only was this creative solution a fraction of the investment of what a new system would have cost, it delivered throughput gains in just a few weeks, which paid for the conveyor reconfiguration cost.

While this is just one example of a custom application, the Engineered Solutions team can help you with a variety of challenges, from dealing with changing packaging requirements to developing fulfillment infrastructures that support the most demanding workflows. 

To learn how Honeywell Intelligrated can address your unique fulfillment requirements with a custom engineered solution, contact our Lifecycle Support Services team. 

To subscribe to our blog and receive exclusive communications and updates from Honeywell Intelligrated, click here.