Space Saving in Your Parts Store with BAC Drawers
Q. How much space do drawer storage cabinets save, compared to boxes on shelves, in a spare parts store?
A. When set-up properly, Drawer Storage Cabinets from BAC Systems can regularly save two thirds of your floor space, for medium-large parts stores storing items up to 2 litres in volume.
This is a claim we regularly make at BAC Systems, because it is what we have seen through nearly 5 decades of experience.
Of course, this claim relies on many factors, so, let's break down what this means, as doing so may help you better see the benefits you will enjoy in your own parts store if you were to add two or three BAC Drawer Storage Cabinets.
The first point we wish to look at is the "what:" what are we storing. For the most part, we are referring to small items, loose items, even items in packaging that, when accumulated together, would fit into a small box or tub with a volume of up to 2 Litres, though we have seen benefits for items stored up to 5 litres in volume. The fact is, though, that when using open shelves, boxes on shelves or louvre bins, it is unlikely that you will come across a system that allows you to store small volumes next to large volumes, as a BAC Drawer will allow you, in an efficient fashion that results in no dead space.
The smallest BAC Drawer Storage Location is approximately 120mL, which is quite small, and this location is extremely easy to label and access. If you keep only one or two of that wedge fuse, small globe, widget or gadget, having a cardboard box with a location 100mm x 100mm x 100mm on a shelf with an additional 75mm clearance above it to the bottom of the 30mm high shelf above it quickly accumulates "dead-space". A BAC Drawer minimises this dead space, with a wide range of available drawer heights to suit your various parts storage height requirements and with no more than a mere 15mm height required between one drawer and the next one below it.
The next point to consider is the structure of the BAC Drawer and how it helps. We have already mentioned the benefits in terms of height - many available drawer heights to suit your inventory, with no more than 15mm of dead height per drawer to account for the workings of the drawer.
In addition to height, BAC Drawers can be divided up with nominal locations starting at 50mm x 50mm, up to a full-sized drawer, and everything in between. BAC even has the ability to combine multiple location sizes into a single drawer, if required, due to the flexibility of its system of drawer partitioning. Drawer Partitions and Dividers can be adjusted in 25mm increments and your location sizes can be set to suit the exact requirement of the part. It can also be adjusted later on, if your inventory changes.
Boxes on shelves, and louvre bins, are supplied in set sizes. There is some ability to divide the boxes in one direction, but this is limited and, in the case of Cardboard, semi-permanent. You will end up having boxes with locations far larger than you need, and, as already mentioned, with dead space above, and sometimes behind, which is inherant for shelving and louver bins.
The final thing to consider is the resulting benefit. BAC promotes the number that you will only require a third of the footprint that boxes on shelving will take for the same inventory. This number is a number of experience. We have seen one scenario where we save a customer 15/16 of his storage footprint. We have seen as low as saving only half of the floorspace. We have seen everything in between as well. The observable average was saving around two thirds, that is, that your BAC Drawers required only a third of the footprint of your previous shelving solution. Obviously, this requires drawer storage well set-up, with a few thousand lines of small-medium parts stored in drawers with adjustable locations.
Of course, every scenario is different, and so we invite you to contact our BAC Technical Sales Team here, in order to arrange a complimentary site survey of your existing parts department.
You can also download our range of catalogues here, or you can click on this link here to browse through our range of drawer storage cabinet options on our website.
If your parts department is bursting at the seams, if you take forever picking parts from many long aisles, if you have trouble keeping parts segregated or finding them , or, if you have trouble keeping parts free from dust, please consider investigating how a BAC Drawer Storage Module can enhance your parts department.
