As Hayes Manufacturing grew from a job shop to high volume coupling supplier to the automotive and heavy equipment industry, its 26,000 square foot facility began to get crowded.

   Hayes needed more tabletop assembly space to meet steadily rising orders for its core flywheel and drive couplings and its newer line of bell housings. The Fife Lake, Mich. company found the space it needed by relocating the parts shelving area that was taking up half of its building to an automated Shuttle Vertical Lift Module (VLM) made by Remstar, International.

   Driving the need for storage space was the intensive backroom assembly required for couplings and bell housings. The engine flywheel couplings, which account for two-thirds of Hayes’ business, can weigh up to 20 pounds. They consist of a hardened-steel hub to which a system of bushings and fasteners attach up to eighteen neoprene inserts. Added to this are a variety of other components such as pump mounting plates and grease plugs.

   Hayes was assembling such products on some 40 linear feet of table space, consisting of tables ranging in length from eight feet to 18 feet. As each order came in, order processors would create a clipboard containing relevant details and place it in the assembly area. There, assemblers with clipboard in hand would pick the parts they needed from rows of conventional steel shelving.

   Once the assemblers brought the parts to the table, the required space and completion time varied with the size of the job. A typical order for 100 housing assemblies, for example, could require 12 linear ...

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