Accumulation: The Key to Keeping the Line Running Efficiently.

As newer faster material handling equipment is being developed and deployed in manufacturing plants throughout the world, the problems of optimizing the production line still lies in the hands of its accumulation areas.  Accurate efficiency of the entire system is measured by the product output at the end of the line.  Accumulation is the key component to ensure that the system can in fact remain viable.

Accumulation Table

Accumulation areas are integrated into high speed production systems to ensure that bottlenecks of a given system are able to run regardless of temporary disruptions in supply or demand of its product.  To ensure a bottleneck always has a continuous supply to pull from, products are stored or backlogged.  This type of accumulation is referred to as “normally full”.  Downstream of this operation there must be a capacity to store products in the event the next operation were to temporarily stop.  This type of accumulation is referred to as “normally empty”.    

Knowing where these bottlenecks exist will determine where accumulation is needed and what its capacity should be.   The true bottleneck of a production line could be it slowest process or a place that has frequent starts and stops.  Once this operation(s) are identified, the next step is to analyze the processes which are both up and downstream of it.  The key factors being the frequency and duration of stoppages for the up and downstream processes.  This information is required to determine the capacity and type of accumulation that is to be employed.

Nautilus Dynamic Accumulator

Once the placement and capacity of accumulation has been determined, the products being handled must be considered in order to select the correct accumulation technology.  There are two main types of accumulation, inline accumulation and off line accumulation.  Inline accumulation is typically performed on a trunk line conveyor and allows products to be stored and consumed in a first in first out (FIFO) manner.  Offline accumulation stores products on an auxiliary piece of equipment which is integrated with the main trunk line.  Offline accumulators can be configured to run in FIFO or last in last out (LIFO) fashion.  Products that require batch lot tracking or specific timing within their packaging process are candidates for FIFO accumulation.

The most traditional form of LIFO accumulation is a bidirectional table.  A bidirectional table is best suited for handling round products.  It also offers the highest density of round products and therefore is the best value per square foot of floor space.  When handling non-round products a multi-zone flow through table is a better fit.  This style of table can also effectively handle round products.  A flow through table is considered to be a virtual FIFO accumulation. 

Arrowhead Systems offers a vast array of accumulating technologies and methods of operation.  Our offering covers the entire spectrum of very simple to complex mechanical and electrical systems tailored to your needs.  We pride ourselves in paying close attention to the factors mentioned above in the selection and integration process.  This ensures our customers are getting the most value per dollar spent and square foot allocated to accumulation of their products.

FIFO Accumulation Table	FILO Accumulation Table
Nautilus FIFO Dynamic Accumulation	FILO Accumulation Table