Industrial manufacturers, like battery producers, might have multiple machining stations that do the same process on the production line to get the rates they need. While more machines increase production, they can also add complexity and challenges.
One often overlooked challenge is creating a seamless journey for products, from a mass flow to these machines in parallel stations.
A traditional metering system may work for lower rates (100-200 parts a minute) to get parts to the parallel, but it becomes much more challenging to design one for a plant that needs rates much higher than that (over 300 parts a minute).
Garvey’s on-demand collection and distribution systems are designed to achieve higher levels of production and throughput and mitigate many of the issues inherent in metering.
Creating a Superhighway for Batteries to Flow down the Line
Imagine commuter traffic on a typical weekday morning. Many people are trying to get to the same destination simultaneously, and any interruption could cause a jam. What would happen if these commuters ended up on a neighborhood road with many traffic lights and detours for construction?
Chances are there will be a lot of traffic jams and people late to work. This is the issue manufacturers have when they use a traditional metering system to direct a mass flow of products to parallel stations.
The gates act like traffic lights as products stop at each station, waiting for a machine to open up and the green light to move on to the next part of the process.
This also means machines are sitting idly by and not doing what they’re supposed to do. If a machine goes down, the line stops and creates a detour for product flow that causes even more interruptions and slower rates.
How Does Garvey’s Distribution System Open Up Traffic?
If a traditional metering system is like a neighborhood road with many stops and lights along the way, a Garvey on-demand distribution system is more like a superhighway.
Rather than waiting for products to position themselves and for a machine to open up, our solution opens up traffic. It allows machines to receive a steady flow of products, so they never wait for inputs.
We use accumulation to create a continuous flow of products that can be fed to the machining centers when they are ready for inputs. The machining centers pick off the products as they need them. If a machining center goes down, the products just move on to the next pickoff area, and so on.
With Garvey collection and distribution systems, your entire line doesn’t shut down when a machining center goes down.
Remember the Theory of Constraints? We never want our constraint to shut down as this lowers production and revenue. Our solution ensures this never happens. It also prevents idle machines that reduce throughput.
Our collection and distribution systems eliminate wait time, prevent stoppages, and enable traffic to circulate continuously to various machining centers in parallel stations.
They can be designed and implemented at each process throughout the production line to ensure plants hit the rates they need.
How to Determine if Your Plant Would Benefit from a Garvey Distribution System?
So far, we have primarily focused on pharmaceutical and industrial applications, but Garvey’s collection and distribution solutions can be used for household goods, and even food manufacturing to increase throughput.
Any plant that uses parallel stations at one or more steps in its production process could benefit from our distribution system. The question then becomes what kind of system would work best for a particular customer.
Similar to our other solutions, we will calculate how efficient the line is and whether it could benefit from accumulation. We will then design and test a custom solution that meets the customer’s production needs and fits their facility and application parameters.
When developing a solution for a customer, we will consider the number of machines, the amount of space we have, the rates we need to hit, and the types of products we will be working with. For example, developing a solution for batteries might look different than if we were working on a solution for pharmaceuticals.
You can read about a solution where we created a prescription bottle distribution system here.
Optimize Product Traffic Flow with a Garvey Solution
If you are using more than a few machines to complete a process at the rate you need, there’s a good chance your plant may benefit from a Garvey collection and distribution solution.
We can ensure your machines are never idle and traffic flow is optimized for on-demand delivery. No more waiting, stoppages, or lost productivity.
Learn more about how our distribution system works and how we can help you achieve the rate you need by increasing your throughput today.