Rustoleum – Hagerstown Project

Rustoleum – Hagerstown Project – Case Study

Rustoleum is the leading manufacturer of premium consumer and industrial paint and coating products in the USA, with a dedicated production and warehousing facility in Hagerstown, Maryland & Attleboro.

Challenges Faced

Rustoleum faced a number of immediate challenges including, expanding production on the same footprint, additional raw material throughput and warehousing of completed production items on site. The increase of spray can production coupled with significant organic growth and a new product line meant additional capacity requirements – to support growth through the next decade.

Smart Partnering

Smart Partnering is the key to success. It starts with a shared vision between customer, consultant and systems integrator – 1Stop Material Handling was appointed the systems integrator of choice by Rustoleum. 1Stop MTH was selected amongst other reasons, for its national reach, ability to up-scale, and a track record of delivering complex warehousing solutions on time and within budget constraints.

The Analysis

The process pursued to evaluate warehousing equipment alternatives to support growth, followed by Racking configuration alternatives to identify throughput requirements, included brainstorming the supply chain, pallet size configurations, evaluating alternatives and identifying optimal growth solutions for Rustoleum. After numerous design options the final lay-out and racking configurations were achieved within the constraints of the existing building infrastructure.

The Solution

Various options were investigated with a view of designing and equipping the facility with a system that would accommodate the complex product flow between raw material, packaging items and finished goods – in a facility not originally designed for such usage. Minimizing travel time, just in time raw material stock levels, increased turn-around time for inbound and outbound logistics, whilst increasing the floor utilization – were some of the accomplishments achieved during this project.

On assessment it was determined that a narrow aisle system comprising of a combination of push-back and selective rack – with maximum utilization of height would result in a >50% increase in number of stored pallet positions relative to any alternative – yet with easy access to all pallets at all times.

Following a product flow analysis a secondary system comprising of a different number of pallet flow areas were designed and constructed that will allow for more up-time in the off-loading of packaging material, storage of raw-material closer to the relative production areas – yet utilizing the existing equipment on site. This allowed an increase in current product staging and marshalling areas – providing added flexibility to the overall design.

Conclusion:

The Smart Partnership between Rustoleum and 1Stop Material Handling’s Team of Project Managers, Senior Management, Jennifer Aguiar President. Dr Byron Daniels, PE, PhD designed the project and was the engineer of record resulted in giving our customer a systems specifically designed to the actual on-site usage and requirements of the customer now and making provision for future growth.