Industrial manufacturer organizes inventory to keep product flowing

Cameron is a leading provider of flow equipment products, systems and services to oil, gas and process industries. Its facility in Oklahoma City, manufactures approximately 800,000 valves per year for customers worldwide. After installing automatic vertical lift modules (VLM), the company streamlined storage of parts and tools in a fraction of the footprint.

Due to the large volume of valves being manufactured on the production floor, the amount of tools gauges and components used in the process became overwhelming. “Tools were being stored in cabinets and drawers, but it wasn’t very organized,” says Bobby Maxwell, senior tool and die maker for Cameron. “It slows production down when you can’t find the right tool.”

Previously, operators would walk and search through the hundreds of drawer cabinets spread throughout the facility. Operators would use tooling or gauges without record, resulting in lost equipment and excess inventory. The storage areas were neither safe nor secure. The new automatic VLMs (Kardex Remstar, kardexremstar.com) consolidated multiple storage locations into two modules, one 12 feet tall and another 19 feet tall. One shuttle VLM is used for CNC tooling and the other manages gauge inventory.

Before automation, without a database to track inventory, missing items were common. The new shuttle VLMs use integrated inventory management software to create a central and efficient workstation. Operators now push a button to direct the shuttle extractor to deliver the necessary tools. On average, an operator used to spend 34 minutes picking tooling and gauges per day. Now it takes 5 minutes, creating an estimated 86% productivity improvement.

The inventory management software also tracks the locations of tools and gauges, requiring password access to the VLM. “Once an operator has access, they can store and retrieve inventory and the software will record each transaction,” Maxwell explains. “This added security allows for inventory to be accessible only to appropriate personnel.”