Workers at Southeast Door Technologies, a company with 50 years of combined experience in the garage door industry, used to pull orders from the warehouse and stage them on the loading dock throughout the day. When the trucks returned in the evening workers would load the orders.
This method of order fulfillment created the following issues for Southeast Door Technologies:
The staged garage doors and products dominated space on the loading dock and interfered with daily operations
Workers were being paid to wait for the trucks to return before they could load the staged orders
Overtime was paid to workers for loading the trucks during the evening hours
Rush loading resulted in accidental product damage and incorrect orders
Theft occurred because management wasn’t present to supervise loading
Southeast Door Technologies chose the Demountable Concepts “Swap-Body” System for straight delivery trucks as the solution to the product staging issues on their loading dock. The system enabled the company to utilize multiple bodies with their delivery trucks and made their loading process more efficient.
Instead of staging product workers now load orders directly into a free standing truck body at the loading dock while a second body is on the truck making daily deliveries.
With the Demountable System each cargo body in Southeast’s fleet can stand independently of the truck on retractable legs and each truck has a lift and lock down system for quickly and easily mounting and demounting or “swapping” bodies.
Because demountable bodies can be loaded independently of the truck workers no longer have to wait for it to return from the route to load product. Loading now takes place during regular work hours which eliminates overtime and the rush loading that causes product damage. Theft and incorrect orders were also reduced because supervisors are available during the day to inspect each order for missing or damaged product.
A small monthly investment in their lease created big savings for Southeast Door Technologies.
Along with eliminating product staging and its related issues the Demountable System improved the bottom line and worker morale for Southeast Door Technologies. The company eliminated two hours of overtime a day for two workers at $18.00 per hour which added up to $360.00 a week.
Shane Cagle, Operations Manager for Southeast Door Technologies sums it up by saying, “The Demountable Concepts System was well worth the extra cost on our lease. For a couple hundred dollars extra a month, we were able to save $18,720.00 a year on overtime expenses.” Plus, worker morale actually improved because mandatory overtime was no longer necessary to facilitate evening loading.
Demountable Concepts, Inc. is located in Glassboro, New Jersey with service and installation centers throughout North America. Their lift and lock-down system for quickly mounting and demounting bodies can be installed on new and existing straight-trucks and they supply truck body builders with the necessary components to make bodies interchangeable. The system can be utilized with van bodies, flat-beds curtain-sides, refrigerated bodies and smaller low GVW class 3-5 trucks.
