HANDLING & STORAGE
BOOSTING WAREHOUSE EFFICIENCY N
ew product depot streamlines Central Steel & Wire’s material handling with the
use of automated guided vehicles and a unique cantilever rack design that allows for narrower aisles. When Central Steel & Wire (CS&W), a
high-quality metal products and services supplier for a wide range of customers from job shops to large OEMs, 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. It would be a major transformation for CS&W because the company was leaving behind a labour-intensive method of material handling in favour of using automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to move its wide range of metal products. “For the first time in the metal service
centre business, we brought in AGVs to replace standard material handling equipment,” says Nicole Giesie, Vice President of Operations at Central Steel & Wire - a member of the Ryerson Family of Companies. “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 realised
by developing a new facility that incorporated racking with consistent pocket locations, evenly distributed and available throughout the location. While AGVs require a significant
investment, there is a substantial payoff in increased material handling efficiency and accuracy, reduced labour, and decreased damage to racking, equipment and structures. “With AGVs, we were able to use our
workforce in other value-added tasks rather than just moving metal throughout the facility,” Nicole Giesie states. Initial design discussions for the
new facility began in August 2021, and included requirements relating to the use of AGVs in a 900,000 ft2 facility that would be developed in southern Chicagoland’s Village of University Park.
18,000 storage locations needed The 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, aluminium 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
40 / WELDING WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 05 - SEPTEMBER 2024
throughout the US, and selected Steel King Industries, a leading 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,” Nicole Giesie adds. Another factor that would work to
CS&W’s advantage was the involvement of Steel King dealer Container Systems, of suburban Chicago. “This was an extremely large project
for our company,” Nicole Giesie says. “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, and so on. 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
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