While Spacesaver® has long been the leader in mobilized storage – a pioneer dating back to 1972 in fact – building a whole new category in a new industry sector, namely Industrial materials storage and handling, can be a daunting task. Explaining how mobilizing existing pallet racking and bulk shelving to increase operational efficiencies through storage compaction always raises a multitude of questions.
Telling your own story is never as powerful or exciting as having others, highly respected in their own industries, tell it for you.
Toyota® Motor Manufacturing, for example, saw the value
ActivRAC™ mobilized storage would provide in a recent lean project that consolidated two full-scale truck production facilities into a single manufacturing location in San Antonio, TX. Toyota is known not only in the automotive manufacturing market segment but also across the manufacturing industry as a leader in lean manufacturing. Toyota’s embrace of mobilized storage helped them accomplish a major manufacturing plant consolidation of the Tundra™ and Tacoma™ truck lines. Not only did this reduce manufacturing and operational costs, Toyota actually saw a 54% production output increase which the company realized in higher profits.
As mobilized storage continues to grow as a critical category in the industrial material handling and storage sector, others will take this particular success story and try to build upon it. With the ability to repurpose idle aisles for revenue generating space, provide 100% pick face accessibility, increase storage capacity and ultimately improve operational efficiency, we are excited to see what comes next…
For more information on Toyota's full case study
click here.
The American Library Association hosts the world’s largest and most dynamic annual library conference. This year the conference is being held in “The Big Easy," New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 23rd through June 28th 2011. The conference brings together more than 25,000 librarians, educators, authors, publishers, literacy experts, illustrators, and the leading suppliers to the market. Spacesaver will be in booth #1724. Come and experience libraries through time.
Our booth will be transformed into a maze of shelving, and as you naviagate through you can view pictures of libraries over the years from the past to present day and beyond. Visitors can leave us messages on a whiteboard about why they like our products and how they see the future of storage in libraries.
Additionally, Spacesaver's “I Heart My Library Contest” will have come to an end before the ALA Conference. Spacesaver’s booth will showcase contest submissions, which are hand drawn pieces of art depicting what patrons love about their library. We hope to see the winning library at our booth for pictures and a sneak peek at the storage they won.
The 5 things you will miss out on if you do not attend ALA 2011.
- The ability to view the Spacesaver storage products that will take your library to the next level.
- The six football fields of exhibits featuring the latest in publishing, furnishings, and technologies for your library as well as four stages with the hottest authors, chefs, poets, and illustrators.
- The opportunity to advance your career and network with the “who’s who” of the industry.
- The chance to hear many of the industries’ experts.
- A trip to New Orleans, Louisiana, and the ability to say it was for business.
Click here to familiarize yourself with Spacesaver's library storage solutions.
Check out our ultra-modern storage installations in the Seattle Public Library.
Want to chat at ALA? Call us now to set up your appointment!
800.492.3434
See you in The Big Easy!
The adjective “sophisticated” is not a word that one might use when describing a basic storage application, such as a locker or a storage cabinet, but believe it or not there are actual storage requests that do demand a certain level of “sophistication”.
How about a secure storage locker that does not require a “key”?
Do you have an application that would benefit from “keyless” access to a storage compartment by authorized personnel only? “Keyless” means … no bulky key chain … no keys to cut … no keys to lose … no locks to change when someone leaves. Sounds really nice, doesn’t it!?
How about a secure compartment that can provide you with a “record” of who and when the storage space was accessed?
Do you have a process that requires “verification” that your high value contents were deposited securely? How about a record that shows by whom and when items were withdrawn? These types of applications cannot be accomplished with your traditional storage spaces, and require a “sophisticated” solution.
Spacesaver® has recently designed and developed such a solution …
Although the above examples are very generic descriptions, there are specific “applications” where this new technology will provide your individual process with a “sophisticated” solution.
Short-term Evidence
In combination with the proven DSM™ Evidence Lockers, ControLoc™ Technology by Spacesaver® provides the ability for evidence professionals to track and document which officers and technicians accessed their system, which evidence lockers they entered, and the date and time of every transaction. Access to the DSM evidence lockers is gained by using an access card and/or numeric control pad.
Pharmaceutical
With ControLoc Technology by Spacesaver, authorized pharmacy employees can monitor and control access to narcotics and other high value drugs, prior to patient delivery. The secure storage cabinets can be positioned close to the patient pick-up counter and loaded daily with narcotics and meds from the pharmacy vault, thus improving efficiencies in the pharmacy for both the personnel and the patients. No more running back and forth from the vault to the patient pick-up counter. Pharmacies can now serve more patients.
High Value Items
Any items that you have of high value that may require keyless authorized storage and/or the trace and track features described above will benefit from the new ControLoc Technology by Spacesaver.
Download your copy of the new Secure Healthcare Storage with ControLoc™ Technology by Spacesaver® information sheet, and contact your local distributor today!
Download your copy of the new DSM™ Evidence Locker Storage with ControLoc™ Technology by Spacesaver® information sheet.
Storage Solved!
Ronald Chisholm, P.E. - Storage Specialist
“One shot, one kill” is the sniper’s motto. It’s definitely ominous-sounding, and it definitely speaks volumes. But it doesn’t say what’s behind the concept of one shot, one kill. For the answer to that, ask the US Army Sniper School at Fort Benning, Georgia, where all aspiring soldiers go for five weeks of intensive training before they earn the right to be called a sniper.
The demanding school calls for a special breed of soldier; highly specialized training; teamwork unlike any other; and weapons systems that set the standard for precision. Plus one other thing: it takes an armory designed to safely and securely house weapons and accessories worth millions. In fact, each sniper weapons system is estimated to cost on average $8,000 to $15,000. Equally expensive are the optics. Now factor in around 500 weapon systems stored at the school’s armory – and the need to keep every component and every accessory that goes with it in pristine condition – and you begin to get a feel for the high stakes involved.
When building the new school armory, the US Army turned to Walter Hopkins Company. Led by Coleman Goodwin, a vet of the Vietnam War and a vet of countless military storage installations, the Walter Hopkins-Fort Benning storage team went to work. And left no detail unchecked.
At the heart of the storage solution are military-certified Universal™ Weapons Racks, each of which is built around the weapons system, the student who uses it, and the soldier’s accessories and personal gear.
Most of the seven-foot-tall UWR® systems safely cradle fully assembled long guns. That way, students don’t need to disassemble or zero them. The lower portion of the UWR® stores long guns that rest on gun stock cups, some of which are adjustable. Barrel supports located at mid-level support and protect each weapon. The top portion of the UWR features a double-row of bins for housing accessories ranging from laser pointers to field goggles to ammunition. Each self-contained cabinet houses eight to ten long guns, along with components.
Another self-contained UWR® stores pistols, hung snugly and safely on pistol racks. And another UWR is equipped with shelves for storing laptops, which are better known as “tough books.” The system even boasts chargers to keep the laptops powered and ready at all times. Yet another system features bins only for storing nothing except optics, including night-vision goggles.
And talk about attention to detail, get this: one UWR® is designed solely for storing rods used to clean the long guns. It features one-of-a-kind, pullout racks that make it easy to get the rods in and out without damaging them. But hey, don’t get the idea that a cabinet specially built for cleaning rods is over the top. It isn’t. The specially made rods are precision tools – not what you would call “off-the-shelf items.”
We’re also talking about a lot of weapons and not much room to work with. To greatly conserve space, majority of the UWR® systems are mounted on an Eclipse Powered System™. It 30-foot-long carriages that travel on wheels mated to a rail system. The carriages move side to side in order to “compress” the carriages into what is essentially one big box. When a user needs to access a UWR®, he pushes a button on the front panel of the carriage, which opens to create aisle. All the other aisles remain closed, which is how the system lets the school store twice as much as it could in the same footprint. And because the system is powered, it’s plugged into the armory’s alarm system. Plus, it provides an audit trail whenever needed.
Yet the team responsible for armory storage didn’t stop at powered mobile units and highly specialize UWR® systems. The solution also includes things like a mobile worktable with raised edges on three sides so that weapons components don’t slide off it. The list goes on.
The motto, “one shot, one kill” boils down to one thing: perfection. Interestingly, perfection is also the term the sniper school uses to describe the completed storage solution – a solution built for an elite class of soldiers who will one day be known as snipers.
Click here to learn "The Truth" about Spacesaver® UWR® Universal Weapons Racks.
Want more information on the UWR Storage System? Click here to contact us.
“Great Scott!” has to be one of my favorite quotes from Back to the Future because it’s always said when something mind boggling is witnessed. One thing I can guarantee about the future is that we will all have a “Great Scott!” moment as a result of new technology inventions, medical advancements, or more realistically something not yet imagined.
Spacesaver® prides itself on being forward thinking and producing innovative products for customers that go above and beyond the industry norms. Our customers appreciate this! Spacesaver’s customers are always looking into the future, which is why “The Museum of Tomorrow” is a great theme for the American Association of Museums 2011 Conference. The conference will be held in Houston, TX, and will begin on May 22nd and end on the 25th. Having museum industry professionals connect with each other and imagine “The Museum of Tomorrow” is one of many steps towards getting to the museum of tomorrow. The future will bring about great changes, but there are some aspects of museums that will never change. One that won’t change is the ability for visitors to experience artifacts, fossils, and other rare historical pieces in person at a museum. Collections displayed and stored at the museum need to be treated with care.
Spacesaver designs products specifically tailored for the museum environment as well as product modifications custom-made for the collection items being stored. These innovative museum storage solutions yield better management, use of space, and security for the museum.
Spacesaver’s AAM booth #509 will showcase storage solutions and educate trade show attendees on products for the museum. We look forward to seeing everyone at the conference and talking about what you envision for the museum of tomorrow.
In the meantime, take a look at some of our museum storage solutions here.
See you in Houston!
I recently took a field trip to Appleton Wisconsin to see our CoreSTOR™ Patient Server in action!
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The visit was prompted by a presentation I had recently given to a local design firm, during which I was asked how a hospital could store supplies in a patient room without actually contaminating the room or infecting the next patient to stay in that room. Not being familiar with these aspects of Healthcare facility design, I was totally stumped. |
So I headed north to see why and how this product has been so successful for the Appleton Medical Center and their Collaborative Care Model.
After my tour and discussions with the Appleton Medical Center’s staff I have a much clearer understanding of how the CoreSTOR units can be used even when a patient is seriously ill and there is a threat of spreading infection.
| First and foremost, the patient server was designed to sit outside of the four-foot radius that houses droplets and airborne contaminants (according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines). |
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This is the main reason a patient server can still sit within a patient’s room, and yet not become contaminated.
These additional steps were also implemented to prevent the spread of any infectious disease when using the patient server:
- No entry is allowed into the patient server while wearing the same gloves used to treat the patient.
- Gel, sinks and glove disposal have all become part of a visual queuing system to remind nurses to dispose of gloves and wash hands before entry into the CoreSTOR.
Not only are patients recovering quicker at the Appleton Medical Center, but staff says:
- 92% of the items are now in the patient room
- There are rules the staff must follow with the server
- Tag what needs to be re-stocked.
- Materials management orders today for what they need tomorrow and now stocks on a seven-day rotation instead of five.
- Nurses site less fatigue (from running all day) as the biggest win of the new system
- Materials Management staff sites feeling like a part of the patient care team as the biggest win of the new system.
To learn more Contact Spacesaver or:
| Download the Point-of-Need Storage Kit. |
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~Julie Weber, Storage Enthusiast