How Conveyors Improved Material Flow and Floor Space at Swisher

Intro

We make cigars, mass-market cigars. We have about 34% of the total mass market in the United States. Well, almost all that was made here in Jacksonville, Florida.

Swisher’s First Problem

The problem we had where FHS came in was on the finishing end, and that was actually getting the product from the machines when it was finished to the shipping area.

What we were doing was palletizing it, and the problem is now the shipping area is actually in another building. There was actually an alleyway, and it was on a hill.

So, if we were to not have the conveyors, we would have to get the pallet, drive the forklift outside, go down the road, around the corner, up the other road to the building.

Mazzella / FHS’s Solution

But instead, what we did is we built a tunnel between the buildings through the alleyway.

If you put a box on the conveyor, it’s probably over there in about four minutes, I’d say five minutes.

It’s really the ease of getting rid of all the pallets off the floor and the space we made up. Because before, with all the different products, we had pallets everywhere with products.

We actually were able to rearrange the layout of the factory to make it more lean and make the flow better.

Because then, we were able to run the production lines onto a conveyor without worrying about having to get a forklift down between the lines.

We were starved for space before. We just didn’t have enough. We were on top of each other.

So, by getting all those pallets off the floor, we actually were able to open up the factory and make the flow better.

Swisher’s Second Problem

The first project that I was involved with with FHS was for three pallet lifts.

We had three buildings, two-story, down in the Dominican Republic, and we had to have a way to access the second floor from the first.

These buildings were stripped when we first went in there. So, we had to buy pallet lifts, and we bought one for each building.

Mazzella’s Second Solution

FHS supplied them, did the install, electrical, everything. It went very smoothly.

The new system that we have is in our tobacco processing facility. When we come out of our pack-out station, we have a box full of tobacco.

Every box had to be routed to three different stations, and the box has to come out and be routed back through a strapper.

We bounced drawings back and forth several times, and we came up with what I think is a very good solution.

We went with FHS because pricing was great and the communication was great.

Anytime I sent over a drawing, they came back very quickly with any revisions that needed to be made. All communication was very clear, and the whole project went really smoothly.