Increased efficiency

Since the beginning of 2011, production efficiency has increased significantly at the hot coiling facility of Hanson Springs in Mellor Street, Rochdale, following the installation of a 25m high storage tower from Kasto to house the bar from which the springs are made.

John Hanson, a director of the company, commented: "Whereas it used to take us up to three hours to find material buried at the bottom of conventional racking, bar is now available from the tower within three and a half minutes of calling it up on the computer control screen.

"This is a maximum cycle time; mostly the stock is delivered to the output station much faster.

"Previously, we planned our manufacture around bar that was reasonably accessible at any given time. However, if an urgent order came in requiring access to elusive bar, staff had no alternative but to spend time searching for it.

"Using the automated storage and retrieval system, flexibility of prod - uction has improved and lead-time is reduced, sometimes dramatically."