SkidWeigh Onboard Forklift Scales are Multipurpose
Multiple Production Strategies Mean More Than One Use
Recently we had the opportunity to visit with one of our end user customers and see first-hand the impact that SkidWeigh onboard scales have on the various applications they are purchased to work in. Working with the servicing lift truck dealer a visit was arranged to provide orientation and calibration for one of Canada’s oldest companies. Based out of Cambridge Ontario this leader in polymeric fabrics for automotive and industrial applications was a show case in life cycle polymer manufacturing. With key manufacturing strategies that revolve around sustainability, material innovation, 70% renewable content and waste reduction all aspects of manufacturing are analyzed, measured and either gained from and or reduced. What began as us training them how to correctly use their new forklift scale quickly became them educating us on just how many different departments benefit from the simple addition of a SkidWeigh scale.
It Starts in Shipping and Receiving
Starting in the shipping department this company receives multiple shipments of raw material from several sources every day. 80% of those loads’ incoming have only the transport shipper acknowledgement to verify the weight of the product. Since this is for transport purposes only the weight in most cases is an estimation and is wrong and cannot be relied on to put into storage and inventory. With several trailers arriving every day with 20 plus loads per trailer, weighing individually via a floor scale is not an option.
The SkidWeigh ED2-AT, the long time standard in material handling scales is perfect for quick perfect weighing on the go with no interruption or additional trips to secure the weight. Just as important is outgoing shipments of finished or recycled product to gain the weight going out and the total shipment of the loads on the trailer for the purpose of not overloading and incurring a fine. The (AT) in ED2-AT represents accumulative totaling which is a 2-button system that automatically adds each load weight required to be known is any choses succession. Press the black button for the weights you to add and the system provides the total. When finished press the red button and the system is reset to 0.
Manufacturing and Recycling
Polymeric fabric is manufactured and collected as finished product in rolls of various dimensions. With literally hundreds of combinations of vinyl and polymer sheets with different finishes and 2-ply adhesions the weight on different products and different size rolls is difficult to calculate. The process before the introduction of a SkidWeigh onboard scales was to calculate the weight of the roll based on the diameter. Again, a floor scale and its proximity to the manufacturing area were not an option. With weighing simplified in the shipping and receiving area it made sense to retro fit the lift trucks in manufacturing with SkidWeigh systems to verify and or correct the weight calculation made on the diameter assessed of the rolls. Also as critical is the recycling or repurposed material that is integral in the production strategies of this company. Straight recycled material collected and sold is weighed and marked on the outgoing bin. The collection of this weight does not require any additional steps as the lift truck taking it to shipping has a SkidWeigh system intact.
Another more critical recycling initiative is the send out of recycled material to be remanufactured into reusable raw material and brought back into the source plant to make additional product. The company only pays a reman commission on the weight of the returned product. Before the introduction of SkidWeigh weighing outgoing product and verifying against the return sort was a cumbersome clipboard to computer process. With the SkidWeigh systems intact collecting the weight is easy and dependable. Because of SkidWeigh technologies accuracy and dependability the company is currently exploring automatic data sends, capable in the SkidWeigh Plus ED4 to upload to their ERP system to remove all manual processes. All SkidWeigh systems from the legacy line of the ED series to the innovation of the SC series with automatic overload warning to the SkidWeigh Plus ED3 and ED4 the systems install in approximately 2 hours are simple and effective for operators to use and pay for themselves in days and weeks.