Newcastle NB Series Mobile Powered Carts used for Mobile High-Volume Printing Stations

“Operators would attempt to carry multiple tickets and other documentation back and forth to the parts staging. There were significant quality issues of wrong paperwork being attached to the wrong job.”

About the Company*:

The company is a leading global manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment with about 11,300 dealers in 170 countries and net sales of ~$18.5 billion.
*It’s the customer’s policy to keep the company name withheld.

With 1.3 million sq. ft of office, warehouse and yard space, the Indianapolis Distribution Center (IDC) located in Lebanon, IN is the company’s largest depot in North America, stocking over 240,000 sku’s.

Application Description:

The IDC receives multiple large shipments and then ships smaller orders to their regional distribution centers throughout North America.

Challenge:

There was one central area where 8 – 9 operators would walk to 1 stationary PC/printer station. Here, they would print multiple product labels, depot tickets, routing tickets, and other documentation.

According to the IDC’s Ops Manager, “Operators would attempt to carry multiple tickets and other documentation back and forth to the parts staging. There were significant quality issues of the wrong paperwork being attached to the wrong job.”

Solution:

Focused on improving quality assurance, they looked for a solution that would enable its operators to print labels and tickets “on-demand” – thereby ensuring an accurate placement of labels/paperwork and a significantly lower number of costly shipping errors.

They chose the NB470 Mobile Powered Cart by Newcastle Systems. The compact, heavy duty NB Series Mobile Powered Cart with (2) 100 AH batteries, 1250 watt inverter and 30 amp charger. This cart powers a laptop and (2) thermal high-volume label printers for about 8 – 10 hours at a time.

Result:

Many operators now have their own mobile printing station that they can easily move down the aisles and print labels, tickets and other documentation as orders are processed.

Key Benefits:

• Operators no longer waste valuable time walking back & forth to 1 static printer
• Packing time has decreased since operators no longer wait around for others to print labels and tickets before them
• The chance of processing errors is significantly reduced

The company now has over 50 Mobile Powered Printing Stations installed throughout its Lebanon, IN Distribution Center. The mobile powered carts are used all over the warehouse in areas such as auto bagging, physical bagging, intrapacking , and more.