Since Panorama Kitchens first met Schelling in 1997, the relationship has gone from strength to strength and Panorama’s investment in Schelling is a resounding vote of confidence.
Roy Rotheram, Panorama Kitchens’ managing director explains that for modern manufacturers, the warehouse has become a critical component to achieving manufacturing excellence.
He says that the most competitive companies are learning to synchronise material movement between the warehouse, production and other operations.
“Material storage and production synchronisation leads to considerable efficiencies, quality improvements and cost savings and this is why we have recently invested in a new Schelling fh4 cut-to-size saw and VS12 board storage system. Now we are able to link our storage facility and production with our order processing via EQ software which delivers a seamless integration of data processing,” explains Roy.
Against a background of limited ground floor factory space the importance of organising the cutting solution was vital – there was only one solution which meant going upwards onto a mezzanine floor.
This meant designing a bespoke scissor lift infeed solution on the ground floor to perfectly meet up with the board lift carriage mechanism on the mezzanine floor.
Markus Freuis, managing director of Schelling UK, comments: “Let’s face it, it’s been a challenging project with limited space so it has been very satisfying when the same factory space delivers over 30% more production.”
The design and operating concept of the fh4 saw and VS12 board storage system places the focus on ease of handling, ergonomics, safety and most importantly, the independent functioning of the saw and board storage system.
Even though the two areas are separated by protective grids, they will continue running even if the other side is switched off. Boards can be continuously cut by the saw while the board storage system is collecting and loading the next batch onto the infeed table.
For Panorama, even further productivity was achieved with HPO and XBoB software. This optimisation and remainder management software ensures a high material yield and that no remnants go to waste. All remnant pieces are recorded in XBoB and labelled before storage. For each new job, the optimisation system detects immediately whether there are suitable leftover boards in the area storage system and plans these into production accordingly.
The project was fully 12 months in the planning and Schelling assigned a dedicated project manager to act as a primary point of contact following the sales, engineering and commissioning of the system.
During the design phase, a considerable amount of steelwork, requiring structural calculations and other engineering issues had to be considered before the best solution was signed off.
To assist with the design solution, Schelling uses in-house design software to simulate material movements within the building. This enables the company to design tailor-made concepts suited to every specific situation.
Markus comments: “All projects face challenges, but our in-house experience and strong installation team resolve these problems. But Schelling support doesn’t stop when your system is installed: we remain at your side to help ensure that it continues working efficiency throughout its life cycle.”
With VS storage zones of up to 16m wide and 100m long with only 10cm between each stack, it is no wonder that Panorama is over the moon with its purchase – with over 40 different kitchens to choose, the automated board storage system copes effortlessly with this vast quantity.
Gone are the days of a forklift driver searching and splitting a stack of boards to get to the desired panel, after which the panel has to be man-handled back to the production area, which is not only time consuming but boards can be damaged during transit not to mention the health and safety issues.
The Schelling board storage system knows exactly where every panel is located and delivers the panel to the saw, saving time, reducing the workload for employees, eliminating the possibility of damages and improving the productivity of the saw.
In part this is delivered by the 150m per minute travel speed in the X and Y axes while in the Z axis (up and down) it is 60m per minute. Also thanks to powerful servo motors, the trolley runs smoothly and quietly on vulcanised high performance running wheels. This is why we say “the trolley really shoots off”.
Roy Rotheram says: “Looking back we are about to celebrate our 50th anniversary next year and based on our recent production machinery investments, what better way to ensure that we will be around for many more years to come.”
