[This article was first published in Army Sustainment Professional Bulletin, which was then called Army Logistician, volume 2, number 6 (November–December 1970), pages 14–15. The text, including any biographical note, is reproduced as faithfully as possible to enable searchability. To view any images and charts in the article, refer to the issue itself, available on DVIDS and the bulletin’s archives at asu.army.mil/alog/.]
VISUALIZE an automated material storage area where manual handling of material and paperwork has been eliminated. A requisition enters the computer, and the process begins. In response to a signal from the computer, an automatic material-dispensing system releases the quantity requisitioned from the storage bank. As the item flows along the mechanized conveyor system, the paperwork to accompany the material is automatically produced on a remote unit interfaced with the computer and mated with the item being processed.
Although this degree of sophistication does not exist today, the U.S. Army Materiel Command (USAMC) has developed a mechanized storage operation program that looks towards this goal. This dynamic program encompasses all of the USAMC depots.
Mechanization and Automation
A part of the broader USAMC depot modernization program, the mechanized storage operations program is aimed at doing more with less. To meet this objective material to be transported must be moved onto a mechanized movement and handling system at the earliest practicable moment after its arrival in a depot and its processing continued by mechanization insofar as possible. It also means that fully automatic equipment and controls must be used at every feasible point.
Modernization committees at each depot are evaluating every major storage and handling operation to determine what savings can be realized in labor, time, and space through the use of mechanized devices. The committees develop plans detailing the features proposed, cost estimates, amortization factors, and the priority for each project. The priorities are based on such factors as problem areas in supply response, promising cost-reduction areas, and spacesaving opportunities.
The USAMC Packaging, Storage, and Containerization Center, Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, and, in instances involving ammunition depots, the USAMC Ammunition Center, Savanna, Illinois, review these plans, propose changes, and provide field assistance in developing final plans. The centers are also responsible for periodically updating the basic program. Headquarters, USAMC, supervises the total program. This includes final acceptance of the depot-prepared plan, determination of the order of priorities, resource programing, scheduling, and establishment of a reporting system that reflects progress and savings.
The success of the depot storage modernization program lies in maximum use of mechanical movement and handling systems. Beginning at the receiving point, depot operations are mechanized through the use of portable, extendible, powered conveyors to expedite carrier unloading. Networks of both powered and gravity conveyors are used in the receipts-processing area and are controlled by powered diverters to sort and collect incoming shipments for inspection and identification. In-line remote input and output equipment, interfaced with the depot computer, for the processing of receipt and location data is a standard item in the mechanized materiel receipts process. In this manner, an incoming item may move from the receiving area to the preservation and packaging area, then to bin or rack storage, and never leave immediate access to the integrated transportation system.
Power and Free Conveyors
The majority of items leaving the central receiving area move to a central loose issue area. Here, a power and free overhead conveyor is the principal modernized means of material movement. The console-controlled, programed system was designed to move in or out of work stations with equal facility. The carriers choose their route through the overhead rail network, automatically switching onto a preselected siding close to the material to be moved. Electronically guided stock selector trucks are used where overhead clearance and work volume permit. These vehicles move over a predefined path, guided by electronic controls, leaving the operator free to select stock. Production increases of 25 percent or more are common at depots using these mechanized methods.
High speed, tilt-tray, sortation conveyors are used to fill requisitions requiring the consolidation of many small items. Each tray is programed to tilt at a specified chute; when released, the items slide to the bottom of the chute for packing. Any number of items may be consolidated for shipment, by customer, with this method.
Since intradepot transport of material can become expensive at depots whose operations spread over a large area, an intradepot transfer unit that will self-load or unload is available. It contains a portable conveyor that can mate with dock-mounted conveyors at pickup or delivery points. The driver can operate all controls from his cab. In this way delivery or receipt of material at outlying points can be made without assistance and without interrupting the in-process operations.
Even with all of this, there is still some distance to go. Additional mechanization, even automation, is required to maintain a satisfactory performance level under the present austere conditions. Feasibility studies are being made at USAMC depots on fully automated storing and retrieval systems for storage and maintenance operations. Briefly, this concept means that material of pallet size configuration can be directed by an automated control system from an input line to a storage cell or receptacle within a large bank of racks or shelves. These banks may be erected to a height of 60 or more feet.
Automated Storage and Retrieval
The control system that will be installed for the retrieval system operation includes a memory capability that selects openings of a size suited to the load, registers the load presence in the bank, and controls the order of actions within the bank. The potential for this system is equally promising in both maintenance and selected storage functions.
One of the feasibility studies is examining the use of light-duty storage and retrieval systems for mechanizing in loose issue activities. This is where the major receiving and shipping line item volume lies.
Depot storage sites studies show a significant cost savings through use of an automated system when compared with the methods presently used. Savings range from a low of 18 percent in cyclic inspection actions to a high of 66 percent for bulk issue actions.
All functional areas combined show an overall cost savings of 40 percent in those tasks that could be done by the automatic storage and retrieval system. The use of storage and retrieval systems can eliminate the congested areas common in maintenance operations and, at the same time, save money by greatly reducing the personnel time spent in handling materials. Although both supply and maintenance operations show favorable returns, maintenance operations overall show a more favorable payoff rate.
The high-reach feature of the storage and retrieval banks offers spacesavings. This is an important factor considering the prospects of large scale oversea retrograde movements. Space valued at $22 per square foot for maintenance and at $10 per square foot for storage operations is amortized over the twenty-five-year span required by the Department of Defense.
Depot Evaluations
Since adequate funds to finance these programs will be difficult to obtain, money spent will be in the areas offering the most profitable returns. It is necessary, therefore, that each depot be evaluated.
Even after the studies are completed and plans are developed, it may take up to two years for the installation of the systems at each depot to be completed. One timesaver can be the use of a common performance specification that will describe the systems requirements in detail.
The USAMC depot modernization program covers the full scope of storage operations. All of the components fit together to form a total integrated system. At times a system may be installed in increments with each increment designed to operate with profit as an individual unit. In this way returns may be realized on each installation right from the start.
The story of how one USAMC depot developed a modernization program to meet the specific requirements of its storage operations is recounted in a related article beginning on page 16.
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Mr. Charles L. Mott is a storage management specialist with the Packaging, Storage, and Containerization Center, a U.S. Army Materiel Command field activity, Tobyhanna Army Depot, Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania.
| Date Taken: | 03.04.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.04.2025 15:05 |
| Story ID: | 492010 |
| Location: | US |
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