Engine Power Source of Charlotte, North Carolina is the world's largest volume distributor of Kubota industrial engines, as well as a major distributor of Perkins, Nissan and Kohler industrial engines.

The company is also a leading supplier of remanufactured industrial engines, new engines, fuel systems, overhaul kits and service parts. In 1999, the company purchased a new 40,000 square foot building to consolidate and centralized three of its four facilities. According to Lynn Hammock, EPS Operations Manager, the installation of Hanel high density storage and material handling equipment in the new facility will help accommodate the company's continued rapid growth.

Hanel Lean-Lifts helped pave the road for expansion.

Prior to the construction of its new building, various EPS operations were housed in four buildings The OEM facility; aftermarket and corporate offices; and service and the fuel shop were consolidated into the new building. The remanufacturing shop stands alone.

Fully one half of the new building, or approximately 20,000 square feet, is dedicated to warehousing and distribution of remanufactured engines and parts for the material handling, agricultural, construction and industrial markets. Management also wanted to consolidate two complete parts inventories, aftermarket and remanufacturing.

Space was the main issue. Inventory had previously been housed on rack shelves and metal part bins. The double-deck storage area consumed about 8,000 square feet of total bin space, plus some additional bulk racks. Hanel dealer, Advanced Equipment Company, worked with Engine Power Source during the planning stages of its move. A thorough study determined that the total inventory requirements could be met with 2-1/2 Hanel Lean-Lifts. Three units mounted side-by-side solved the immediate problem and provided room for expansion. EPS personnel were very impressed with how much material they could store in a Lean-Lift. They also concluded that they never could have fit all the inventory in the new building without the Hanels. The reason is that this warehouse is responsible for 5,000 different parts to accommodate approximately 380 different engine configurations. The warehouse supplies parts to the EPS remanufacturing facility, as well as to various lift truck dealers and other dealers throughout the United States. Efficiency and ergonomics greatly enhanced. EPS chose the Hanel CIM advanced inventory management software to interface with its internal software system. This powerful tool enables eight internal sales people to key in orders all day and send them directly to the warehouse via computer. The warehouse personnel are able to review the order information and decide when it is most efficient to run a batch of orders. Having access to this information frees the crew to perform other work in the warehouse. Warehouse personnel use an order fulfillment system called batch processing which has proven to be a very efficient part picking method for them. Simply put, one person picks all the parts for a batch from a shelf or section, then proceeds to pick the next part number. Under the old system three or four people would walk throughout an 8,000 square foot area, including climbing stairs, to process an order. Now one or two people can walk just 27 feet back and forth in front of the Lean-Lifts to do the job. This represents tremendous savings of time and manpower. The proof is in the performance.

Operations Manager, Lynn Hammock, remarks that the move into the new building would not have been possible without the capacity of the Hanel Lean-Lifts. He is pleased that now his inventory is:

consolidated and contained organized, cleaner and neater controlled better than ever

Lynn concludes, "Our Hanel Lean-Lifts have helped us in a lot of ways, from consolidating space, saving time and energy spent processing orders, to managing inventory controls. This all translates into better utilization and more profit for the company."

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