Link-Belt Cranes (www.linkbelt.com) has announced the completion of a warehouse expansion that adds 60,000 square feet (5 574 sq. m) of new warehouse space to its Parts Distribution Center, bringing the total size of parts space to 132,000 square feet (12 263 sq. m). The expansion represents a $9 million investment in the global headquarters of Link-Belt Cranes in Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.A.
“We are fortunate to have the ongoing, long-term support of our owners, SHI (Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd.), who continue to invest in our business during these uncertain times. Their strong belief in the Link-Belt brand and business unit provides our company the opportunity to expand at this scale and further improve our long-term strength in the global mobile crane market,” said Link-Belt Cranes President/CEO, Melvin Porter.
Following a lean philosophy of a Plan For Every Part (PFEP) the new warehouse expansion optimizes space by considering all internal assembly components and their corresponding production function.
Consolidated receiving
Construction was complete on the addition of two new receiving bay doors at Link-Belt’s Parts Distribution Center in fourth quarter 2020. This was the initial step in consolidation of the receiving function for all inbound production and service parts.
“There are a lot of long-term benefits to this deep-dive into our parts warehouse – everything from where new parts are received, to how parts are counted and inventoried, to how that part makes its way to the production floor for assembly. You want the right part, oriented properly and delivered at the right time to ensure higher quality and reliability of the finished product. The same is true for service parts delivery,” said Porter.
New parts enter through one consolidated receiving location and are then scanned and counted for inventory. In the new production parts warehouse there is storage capacity of 104,000 square feet (9 661 sq. m).