Reasons Why You Should Consider Custom Material Handling Solutions

Every business needs to handle the materials they use for production and distribution efficiently, and material handling equipment helps to achieve this. From retailers to automotive manufacturers, material handling is a necessity. However, material handling looks different depending on the specific needs of each business. Some industries may have unique needs for material handling that off-the-shelf material handling equipment can’t achieve. This is where custom material handling solutions come into play.

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The Problem With Solely Pre-Manufactured Equipment Distributors

At its most basic, material handling is the process of transporting products within warehouses and facilities. This process doesn’t directly generate income, and it usually presents costs of its own. For this reason, it’s essential that material handling is as lean, ergonomic and efficient as possible. Unfortunately, off-the-shelf equipment often falls short of these needs.

Pre-manufactured material handling equipment completes the essential functions needed for material handling. But it’s the details that are essential for maximizing productivity in warehouses and facilities. Minor inefficiencies and problems can add up to significant costs in the long run, especially in the following areas:

Poor ergonomics: According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the leading cause of compensable injuries in the U.S. is manual material handling, and most of these injuries affect the lower back. These injuries can be caused by a range of workplace factors, including poor ergonomics for material handling and storage equipment. Such inefficiencies can frequently lead to workers’ compensation claims and employee absences.
Product damage: Damaged product is another typical cost of non-custom equipment. Equipment that directly or indirectly leads to scratched or damaged products can cost your business in lost or replaced product. Damaged products that make it to consumers can get even more costly, negatively impacting your business image and resulting in lost sales.
Inefficient space utilization: Storage is another aspect of material handling that requires custom solutions for maximum efficiency. Poorly designed storage solutions can use floor space inefficiently or require workers to do more manual work than necessary.

In short, the “one size fits all” approach of pre-manufactured material handling equipment distributors simply won’t work to meet your facility’s unique needs. The answer to this problem is to invest in custom material handling solutions.

The Benefit of Custom Equipment Solutions

Many businesses hesitate at the thought of ordering custom-made solutions, fearing higher costs and longer turnaround times for orders. However, the benefits of custom warehouse solutions far outweigh any upfront costs. These benefits come down to one major factor — custom warehouse equipment is built specifically for your facility’s needs. What does this mean for warehouses? Some of the primary advantages of material handling solutions from custom suppliers include:

Maximized efficiency: Improved efficiency is the primary benefit of custom handling solutions. Custom solutions are tailored to your company’s specific needs and purposes, fitting in seamlessly with your existing processes to maximize efficiency.
Reduced labor costs: Decreasing overhead and minimizing labor costs are key to maintaining profitability for warehouse owners. Custom handling solutions help reduce manual labor, sometimes even eliminating it.
Improved safety: Safety is another key concern within warehouses. While stock handling equipment can assist with many manual labor requirements, many are made with minimal safety features. Additionally, stock equipment may not fit seamlessly into warehouse processes, requiring manual labor to pick up the slack. Both of these issues present potential safety concerns for warehouse workers, and both can be addressed with custom equipment. Custom material handling equipment can be made with ergonomic, safety-focused features that fit perfectly into processes, minimizing labor requirements to reduce worker strain and fatigue while keeping them safe from machinery-related injuries.
Enhanced integration: System integration within warehouses is enhanced with custom handling solutions. Custom equipment is made with the goal of cohesion and connectivity, complementing existing systems and processes to maximize efficiency.
High quality: Custom handling equipment also presents improved quality compared to some stock equipment. Custom equipment designers will work with you to determine the quality of parts you want to incorporate into the final design. This means custom equipment meets your facility’s quality standards and may offer a longer life cycle compared to standard options since it’s perfectly designed for the task at hand.
Cost-effectiveness: All the benefits of custom warehouse equipment culminate into one overarching advantage — cost-effectiveness. While customized trucks and material handling carts may cost more than their pre-manufactured counterparts, these custom solutions deliver greater efficiency, lower labor costs and enhanced worker safety. This means custom solutions deliver excellent returns on investment that can save more money in the long run.

Warehouses can enjoy these benefits by working with a quality custom handling solutions provider like Cherry’s Material Handling.

Types of Custom Material Handling Solutions

Custom solutions come in a wide variety, encompassing the full range of material handling equipment commonly found in warehouse facilities. Cherry’s Material Handling provides options in both stock and custom solutions. Many of our stock solutions can be customized to meet the specific needs of your application, from custom warehouse shelves to material handling machinery. Some of the types of custom material handling solutions available include:

Roller skids: If you’re looking for roller skids that perfectly fit your rigging application, work with Cherry’s Material Handling to develop a custom solution. We’ll discuss your application and goals to determine the best custom roller skid option for your business.
Pallets: Cherry’s provides both plastic pallets and aluminum pallets that can be customized to fit the needs of your specific applications. Pallets can be customized to meet your needs in dimensions, capacity, durability, nestability, finish and material composition.
Pallet trucks: Pallet trucks can be customized to meet a range of application needs. From size and capacity to color and ergonomics, work with a custom material handling solution that can develop a pallet truck that delivers all the features your warehouse needs.
Containers: Choose custom-designed wire containers or metal containers that meet your specific storage, shipping and warehousing needs. Wire containers can be customized to include a range of features, including latches, dividers, stacking feet, casters, safety lids and more. Metal containers can be customized to be rigid or collapsible with the dimensions and accessibility options that you dictate.
Slip sheets: If your application uses slip sheets, you may want to find custom options that fit into your warehouse operations more seamlessly. Customized slip sheet options can offer specific thicknesses, dimensions, texture and score, and can even be designed to feature your company logo.
Bulk bins: Design bulk bins that meet your specific needs and can help you achieve the productivity you desire. Custom bulk bins can feature casters and other custom features and can be designed with specific dimensions and colors that fit perfectly into your lean warehouse operations.
Wire decks: Sometimes, standard wire decks don’t exactly meet your warehouse’s shelving needs. With custom warehouse shelving solutions, you can add extra support channels, determine dimensions and even modify designs for improved hygiene.
Powered carts: Transporting products using powered carts is an increasingly popular option in warehouse facilities, but you need carts that meet the unique demands of your application. Customized material handling carts can feature increased working capacities, motorized and automated enhancements, modified dimensions and even environmental accommodations to handle various temperatures or terrains.
Lift tables: Lift tables, including scissor and sanitary lifts, need to fit perfectly into your facility’s layout and operation. Custom lift tables are modified to meet these needs, increasing productivity and making your warehouse employees’ workdays safer and easier. Customizations can include modifying lift tables with larger platforms, higher lift capacity and range, resistance to corrosion or additional safety features.
Tape and signs: Our customizing options even extend to safety tape and signage. While the options available on the market today are numerous, you may want tape and signs with specific messages, themes, colors, textures or dimensions that are unique to your application.

If you don’t see the material handling equipment you need on this list, reach out to Cherry’s Material Handling. We have a team of product specialists that is dedicated to creating custom solutions to meet all your material handling needs. Let us know what equipment you’re wanting and the conditions you wish us to meet, and we’ll assist you with adjusting the dimensions, loads and functionality of our stock equipment to develop the perfect solution.

The Custom Material Handling Design and Building Process

If you need a custom solution for your material handling needs, Cherry’s Material Handling is here to help. Our product specialists and engineers will work with you directly to determine exactly what you need and develop a solution that will fit seamlessly into your workflows. So how does this process work?

The custom material handling design and building process involves three steps:

1. Project Initialization

The process starts with our product specialists discussing your project with you. During this step, we’ll learn about your current system and the challenges you’re facing with your existing equipment. From there, we will identify your business’ needs and goals to develop an outline for the project going forward.

After that, we will walk you through our approach to solving your material handling concerns and the solutions we have in mind, explaining the engineering process so you know what to expect. Throughout this process, we will work closely with you, taking your feedback and answering all your questions to ensure our goals and processes align with your expectations.

2. Engineering

After we’ve hammered out the details with you, we’ll work out concept sketches to develop preliminary project drawings that address each one of the needs and goals identified during the initialization stage. We’ll then analyze each potential solution from every angle to develop a final workable concept. Upon finalization, we’ll communicate with you to work through the project and budget so you’re aware of the costs before we move forward. We’ll also review the project with you so you can see the concept before work has started and make any necessary adjustments.

3. Delivery

After the project is finalized, the budget and price are set, and the contact documents are in order, construction on the project begins. We’ll review the project a final time before generating drawings and initiating component manufacturing and assembly.

Throughout the construction process, we’ll inform you of the progress and the expected delivery date, making sure we are providing a reasonable time frame without sacrificing quality for speed. Once the project is completed, we will notify you and deliver the equipment directly to your facility. We can even install the equipment for you and train your team on its use to ensure optimal functionality and safety.

Using these steps, we can take an existing stock product and modify it to meet your needs, or develop an entirely new equipment that fits your application seamlessly. No matter how unique the idea, Cherry’s Material Handling has the expertise and tools to get it done.

Contact Cherry’s for a Solution to Your Challenge

With Cherry’s Material Handling, the only limit to your custom handling solutions is your imagination. From custom pallet designs to entire material handling systems, Cherry’s has the expertise to help you achieve it.

In addition to our versatile stock equipment, our experienced design team can help build and improve equipment to meet your facility’s unique handling challenges. Are you looking for improved ergonomics? Reach out to us for custom lift tables and work positioners to reduce the manual labor needed from your employees. Are you concerned about safety? Talk to us about our crash guards, custom tape and signage, and our custom equipment safety features that can help create a safer work environment. How about organization? We offer a full range of custom warehouse shelving and container options that can help you make more efficient use of your warehouse space.

Why choose Cherry’s over other material handling equipment providers? Customers can attest to four key features that help us stand out from the rest:

We offer the best warehouse equipment to meet your industrial needs.
Our website facilitates easy, safe and secure shopping for equipment and supplies.
Our customer support is top-notch, so you can get expert help via call or live chat when you need it.
We provide custom solutions for warehouse material handling equipment.

To learn more about our equipment and customization options from one of our expert service representatives, contact Cherry’s Material Handling today.