Furniture component manufacturing MRO parts storage

Hanel Lean -Lift for Furniture component manufacturing

Blum Inc., with more than 6,000 employees worldwide and subsidiaries located in a number of countries, is a global leader when it comes to hinges, runners, drawer systems and similar hardware components for furniture and wooden cabinets. 

Blum products are found in homes around the world, especially in the kitchen. These components make for smooth and convenient opening and closing of drawers and cupboards. Founded in 1977 in Lowesville, North Carolina, Blum Inc. currently has 400 employees who produce hardware fittings for the North American market. 

Parts supplied directly in the production area 

Located centrally in the company’s production area, one Hänel Lean-Lift® stores all of the spare parts needed to keep manufacturing equipment and machines up and running. The Lean-Lift® utilizes the height of the building – from floor to ceiling – to save valuable production space and provide maximum storage capacity at the same time. In fact, a section of the roof structure was removed and the foundation was reinforced to accommodate the storage solution. The Lean-Lift® is finished in the company’s corporate color scheme so that it blends in with the entire manufacturing environment. 

Having the Hänel system located centrally in the production area has boosted the capacity of Blum’s small parts storage. At the same time, jobs are processed much faster and with greater efficiency. 

When a part is needed, the request is initiated directly in the warehouse management system. The request is then transmitted to the storage system controller. Once employees have verified their identities using a barcode scanner, the extractor in the Hänel Lean-Lift® brings the container with the requested item directly to the access point for retrieval. 

Precise identification of storage positions 

The MP 12 N-StandAlone controller displays storage positions according to a precisely coded grid. To improve access and picking accuracy even more, Blum Inc. plans to equip the storage system with Hänel Pick-o-Light® next year – the Blum parent company also uses this innovative feature. This will make sure that even the smallest grid compartment on the container can be identified quickly and confirmed. 

The Hänel Lean-Lift® is easily integrated into processes and supports fast and reliable provisioning of spare parts. 

Company:
Blum Inc.

Location:
7733 Old Plank Rd
Stanley, NC 28164

Employees:
400

Storage systems:
1 Hänel Lean-Lift®

Items stored:
Hinges and drawers for cabinets