Reinforced Steel Industry - Container Handling Case Study

Australian Reinforcing Company (ARC) - formerly Smorgon Steel

Background

The Australian Reinforcing Company (ARC) were looking for a solution to a number of site problems that they had at their Geebung site in Queensland.

Current Situation

  • Approximately 40 owned trailers.
  • 25 to 30 deliveries daily.
  • 10 to 15 sub-contract trucks.

The method they used for loading steel on trailers was very dangerous and unsafe.  The operators had to work at height, using loading frames and harnesses that were uncomfortable and often impaired or restricted movement.  They had experienced some accidents where operators had fallen off the steel loads.

There was a lot of money tied up in trailers – 40 of them.  They took up a lot of space when loaded and when empty.

The loading of steel on trailers for the first wave of deliveries would happen over night, picked up by trucks first thing in the morning.  Often end-users would delay deliveries, resulting in loaded trailers being left for extended periods of time in the yard, often days.  This caused the need for significantly more actual trailers in the fleet than actual loads delivered in each wave of deliveries.

A second (and sometimes third) wave of deliveries would happen each day.  If there were spare trailers, the second wave loading would take place before a truck returned with an empty trailer.  If there were no empty trailers available, the production would need to wait until an empty trailer returned.  When, as often happened, trucks needed to wait to be loaded (2 to 3 hours) when they returned for their second wave delivery, ARC would need to pay for the waiting time of the truck.

Problems

ARC was looking for a way to:

  • Improve safety and do-away with the need to use loading frames and harnesses.
  • Need less trailers, so as to free up cash and require less space.
  • Reduce transport costs, by reducing the need to have sub-contract trucks waiting for loading.
  • Improve production, by eliminating the need to stop and wait for a trailer.

Container Handling Solution

ARC implemented a new Mobicon System, in conjunction with a set of 50+ container bases (flat-racks), most of which they sourced as “used” product.  This enabled ARC to:

  • Significantly improve safety, as they were now able to load on the ground, without the need to use loading frames and harnesses.
  • They were able to sell 25+ trailers, keeping approx. 15 trailers in their fleet.
  • They could save space, as the flat-racks can be efficiently stacked when empty.
  • They reduced transport costs by eliminating the truck waiting time, as they always have an empty flat-rack available for loading.
  • They improved productivity as they never need to stop production when waiting for an empty trailer.

Working indoors with a Mobicon

Business Case

The initial financial case included the following:

  • Purchase of new Mobicon and used flat-racks    
  • Sale of 25 used trailers       
  • The Net Capital Outlay was  ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... $AUD 70,000

Annual cost saving – reduced transport costs ... ... . $AUD 280,000

Subsequently, the plant has had a significant improvement in productivity:

Per Annum - labour saving ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... . $AUD 700,000

  • Productivity improvement - measured as man hours per tonne.
  • Improved 0.7 hrs - from 3.8 hrs to 3.1 hrs.
  • Safety improvements have led to a significant reduction in time lost through injury.

Other Sites

Since implementing the initial solution, ARC has installed 3 more Mobicon/Flat-Rack Systems in Melbourne, Sydney and at a 2nd Brisbane site.  In each case the business case was very similar.

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