Whether it’s a new manufacturing facility or an existing structure that’s been functioning for years, plant floor space is nearly always at a premium. Besides needing room for equipment and product flow, processing and packaging management needs to plan for safe and efficient personnel and forklift movement.
The task may sound a simple one, but optimizing productivity can sometimes lead to crowded machinery and traffic jams, where aisles are too tight or poor flow creates bottlenecks. And that means lower efficiency and a greater risk of accidents related to workplace congestion.
One way to open up the plant floor is to move conveyor operations up and out of the way—i.e., overhead. Overhead conveyors maximize available square footage, improve personnel and lift truck flow, and create layout and construction options that are not available with ground-level systems or by moving product manually.