TPi March 2016

Tube handling and logistics

Materials handling in a state-of-the-art tube making facility is streamlined to the point of leaving little room for improvement. The seamless assimilation of the handling process into the broader production cycle might provide the sole area for avoiding what economists call opportunity cost: the loss of the benefits of taking an alternative action. A minute is always 60 seconds long, and minutes lost at the stage of reception and presentation of the feedstock are just as precious as those lost in less-than-efficient collection, bundling, packaging, and transport of the output. And just as irrecoverable. And just as damaging to productivity. That is where logistics comes in – and where tube and pipe professionals excel. Opportunity cost is not in their outlook. Full-bore efficiency in materials handling is never out of it.