Ready and loaded

The cost of loading goods is precise and exactly definable, allowing a scientific approach to problems and solutions with a quantifiable return on investments (RoI).

Loading bays are the heart and soul of a warehouse but are also unfortunately, the most overlooked areas. The importance of efficiently loading goods has only increased over the years. Higher cost of skilled manpower necessitates hiring less qualified personnel. The cost of goods comprises cost of raw materials´ production, storage, and loading and shipment. With the introduction of better-performing, precise and safe production machinery, a major chunk of the cost is passed over from production to the storage and loading process. The cost of loading goods is a precise, inevitable phase, exactly definable that allows a scientific approach to problems and therefore, an ability to arrive at solutions that may be quantified as return on investments (RoI).

Efficiently loading and unloading goods
For efficiently loading and unloading of goods at the loading bay, the basic equipment comprises dock levelers, sectional overhead doors and sock shelters. They appear to be independent equipment, but installation of one without the other may not result in a complete solution. All three equipment are interdependent. However, the choice of either one depends on many factors such as type of goods, weight, volume, quantity, dimension of the courtyard, frequency of movement, type of vehicles and temperature to be maintained within the facility.

Loading Bays: how to equip them?
With the approach mentioned above, some benefits of cost reduction are:

• Operators at the loading bay
• Material at the bay
• Ecology and energy savings
• Maintaining quality
• Vehicles
• Speeding up operations
• Equipping also when it seems impossible
• Choosing equipment which allows the maximum building integration
• To choose the equipment that allows maximum electrical integration
• To choose equipment with adequate materials and finishing
• Choosing the adequate equipment

The Deep Cold Loading Bays: This system includes a telescopic dock leveler with a lip of 1 m that remains – in rest position – closed by a sectional door that descends to cover the front of the whole leveler.

The sectional door, that for the deep cold is 80 mm thick, has a trapeze and reduced-width bottom panel that enters and seals the inside of the pit, against special insulating parts. A horizontal insulating panel under the leveler pit insulates the tail-lift room (when existing).

The best is obtained by the option – automatic return to rest position – of the dock leveler. In case of deep cold, the insulation can be increased by the use of inflatable dock shelters, reaching top energy savings. For avoiding collisions to the rigid insulated panels of the inflatable dock shelters, vehicle wheel guides are used. Also, dock-houses can be supplied with the Recessed Loading Bay system, for fresh and deep cold.

How to load in order to save
It is possible to load and unload your products safely and in the process obtain remarkable energy savings.

The loading bay remains with the dock leveler in rest position and the sectional overhead door closed, until the vehicle is positioned. The driver drives back centering to the dock shelter and stops the vehicle the moment it gets in contact with the bumpers.

The sectional overhead door is then opened only when the vehicle is positioned, brakes applied and engines shut off. This eliminates the exit of hot air, intake of cold air (or the opposite in hot and inside conditioned places) and intake of exhausting gases in the warehouse. After the sectional overhead door opens, the lip of the dock leveler connects to the truck bed for loading/unloading to take place.

At the end of the loading/unloading the dock leveler is put in the rest position and the sectional overhead door is closed, without moving the vehicle. The vehicle then departs at the end of the process.

How much time elapses between the arriving of the vehicle and the beginning of the loading is the big question that must be solved. The shorter it is, the greater is the saving and consequently has a bearing on the material cost.

This article is authored by Kartik Gandhi, Director, Gandhi Automations Pvt Ltd.
Gandhi Automations Pvt Ltd
Chawda Commercial Centre, Link Road, Malad (West),
Mumbai – 400064, India. Off: 22 66720200 / 66720300 (200 lines),
Fax: 22 66720201, Email: sales@geapl.co.in,
Website: www.geapl.co.in