Further, if gaskets remained in inventory for an extended pe- riod of time, they could become dirty, deformed, and unusable upon retrieval. Using a Shuttle XP with an oversized tray meant that much of the gasket inventory could be moved to an enclosed environ- ment, ensuring clean and usable gaskets while providing employees easy ergonomic access. A tenth climate-con-
trolled Shuttle XP was added to store circuit cards and circuit boards in accordance with the Electric Power Research Institute standards. These circuit cards and circuit boards were previously stored on bin shelving and subject to changing environmental conditions within the warehouse. “A temperature and humidity controlled environ- ment is a good solution for our storage of circuit cards and circuit boards” said McAvoy.
Inventory accuracy can also cause major maintenance headaches. To prevent this, the ERP system selects a ran- dom number of parts to cycle count per day based on an inventory cycle-count requirement. The VLMs also provide a higher level of secured access, allowing only warehouse employees access to the machines. “Cycle counting com- bined with the secured storage environment has allowed us to achieve an inventory accuracy greater than 99%,” said McAvoy. Continually counting a few parts per day reduces the risk of parts not being available when required.
Powerful Parts Picking The main warehouse at Susquehanna supports the man- datory maintenance schedule by supplying the right parts in a usable condition and on time. The main warehouse receives two types of work orders—preventative maintenance work orders and planned scheduled shutdown work orders. The NIMS (Nuclear Information Management system) automati- cally generates preventative maintenance work orders based on the mandatory schedule. Each work order is sent to the main warehouse for fulfi llment with a need date attached to it.
Upon receiving a work order, the warehouse associate
Workers at Talen Energy Corp.’s Susquehana nuclear power plant select parts from Kardex Remstar Shuttle VLMs.
references the storage location on the work order to locate the correct VLM and uses the controller keypad to enter the tray number. The VLM moves to retrieve the tray that contains the part delivering it directly to the operator at an ergo- nomic waist height. This eliminates the walk-and- search time commonly associated with storage bins and shelving. The worker picks the part from the tray, and moves to the next tray to collect the next part required for the work order.
Photo courtesy Kardex Remstar LLC
When all parts required for the work order have been picked, the work order is stored as a completed work order in one of the 10 VLMs. The main warehouse fulfi lls preventative maintenance work orders several weeks in advance, allowing time to procure any parts required that are not on site. When workers arrive to perform preventative maintenance work, they simply stop at the material issue window to col- lect the work order containing the required parts. The main warehouse easily retrieves the completed order stored within the VLM and the workers are quickly on their way to perform the maintenance required. Refueling a nuclear reactor also requires Susquehanna to schedule a complete shutdown every two years. This scheduled shutdown requires about 1200 additional con- tracted workers to come on site to perform hundreds of maintenance tasks. Scheduled shutdown work orders are picked just like preventative maintenance work orders, but on a bigger scale as these scheduled maintenance outages require 6000–8000 parts. “Organized, accessible and accurate parts inventory is critical in our industry and the Shuttle VLMs have supported our ability to create a reliable parts management system,” said McAvoy.
Edited by Yearbook Editor James D. Sawyer from information provided by Kardex Remstar LLC
35 — Energy Manufacturing 2016
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