When it comes to planning your automated conveyor systems, lead time can be an important factor when designing your system around a manufacturer. Don’t let fear of long lead times keep you from your best, most innovative work. Instead, choose a partner who can support and elevate your designs with both flexible solutions and quick conveyor lead times.
Keep reading for the three factors impacting your project fulfillment times.
Engineering time is a factor at the beginning of a project for every applications engineer. You may be able to download CAD blocks and a price from a manufacturer’s website and mate them in SOLIDWORKS, but each change you make, price you need, or part number you require necessitates a conversation with the manufacturer and their engineers (or another online configuration). This iterative process is a drain on your project’s timeline is simply wasted, and can be avoided altogether.
100% configurable conveyor technology software from Glide-Line, called IMPACT!, can live locally on your computer and interacts directly with SOLIDWORKS. When you update conveyor or device details in your master assembly, the configurable conveyor technology software dynamically updates part numbers and pricing instantly from the millions of SOLIDWORKS configurations available. It even provides tools to evaluate the application itself. The updated process using an in-context configurator cuts time out of your pricing and design process significantly while giving you highly detailed and accurate models perfect for 3D solid modeling.
We’ve calculated the average time savings for both a simple and a more complex design. Read more in our recent ebook.
Project fulfillment times are highly dependent on the number of standard parts versus custom conveyor parts you need in your client’s automated conveyor system. If you need both short lead time and variations from the standard norms, look for a manufacturer with the greatest variety and flexibility in their standard conveyor system options.
Most conveyor systems manufacturers’ lead times from order to delivery are in the 10-12 week range (or worse). Sometimes this can be expedited for a fee, but other less expensive or more standard options do exist.
Partnering with a conveyor systems manufacturer able to deviate from the norms, like Glide-Line, will be most beneficial to your lead time. Glide-Line’s manufacturing process is built to shorten lead times; we can ship conveyors in 2 to 3 weeks, and devices such as lifts, lift and transfers, lift and locate stations, vertical transfer units and more in 4 to 6 weeks. This is a time savings of 40% thanks to our efficient, optimized manufacturing process, which delivers shorter lead times and creates happy clients.
3. Delivery & Assembly Time
Most importantly, the conveyor automation system ships pre-assembled, saving time once the system arrives on site at your client’s location. This cuts lead time in half compared to other manufacturers and saves your client significant time and money.
It’s important for both you and the manufacturer you select to be on the same page when it comes to your conveyor project fulfillment times and needs. With our modular designs and simple construction, conveyors and systems can be built and shipped in lead times typically half that of our competition. Read more about our radical guaranteed conveyor lead time, our process, and our standard customization options in our ebook, How to Cut Conveyor System Lead Time in Half in 2018.