Toy Company’s new pallet scale makes the best out of limited space

U.S. Toy Company operates a 750,000-square-foot distribution center that ships to retail consumers, as well as commercial and wholesale accounts. Changing facility space requirements led to a reduction in truck shipment preparation space. A new, portable U-shaped scale (Fairbanks Scales, fairbanks.com) has improved productivity and safety while reducing the total time needed to prepare for shipping.

The DC includes robotic and manual picking areas that ship using parcel, less than truckload (LTL), and full truckload modes. The company reduced the area devoted to shipping as part of an overall facility space reorganization that allowed it to make better overall use of the distribution center. The reductions had a major impact on the LTL department, leaving the area with limited space dedicated to the preparation of truck shipments.

U.S. Toy had one older floor scale, along with about 10 table scales for parcel-UPS type shipping, and sough to make the best use of every square foot of the shipping area. The U-shaped floor scale allows material handlers to capture the weight of standard and non-standard pallets and skids without removing the pallet jack. This reduces weighing times by eliminating the time-consuming step of pulling the pallet jack out from underneath the pallet, which can be difficult with traditional ramped floor scales, like the older scale in use at U.S. Toy.

“In the case of a heavy skid, we had to consider the ergonomic factor of the employee tugging the pallet jack up the ramp to the scale, releasing the load, and pulling down the pallet jack off the scale,” says Robin Simpson, vice president of distribution for U.S. Toys. “It is far more ergonomically friendly to just roll in the jack, release the jack and weigh the skid. Employees no longer have to tug it uphill or push it up an incline.”

The scale has a 5,000-pound capacity and is only 2.4-inches tall and does not require a ramp or pit. The scale meets or exceeds the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s specifications, tolerances and requirements for weighing devices. The built-in handles, used to move the scale, were designed to avoid stress and injury. The new floor scale is used to weigh skids of product in preparation for shipping.

“The Fairbanks scale allows us to manipulate space better,” Simpson says. “It reduces square footage needed for the floor scale, and we can move it around easily, which means we don’t have to clear a definitive permanent space for the scale.”

The addition of an extra scale has improved shipping operations, especially during the busy July-August period, when they handle more than the usual number of LTL shipments. Now two people can be put to work with shipments, speeding up shipping tasks.

The large facility is comprised of three buildings and they sometimes need a scale in areas other than the shipping space. For example, they can now bring the U-shaped scale to the receiving area for cross docking, a logistics procedure involving unloading imported containers from an incoming semi-trailer truck and loading them directly into outbound trucks with no storage and without skidding it (weighing for shipping out to a customer).

Another example is use of the scale for special projects, in which they might be preparing pallets for a future shipment. The new scale allows them to bring the scale to that area, versus bringing the pallet to the scale. In the past, products had to be skidded wherever the scale was permanently positioned. This involved using a forklift, bringing products to the scale, weighing them and bringing them back for shipping.