Preparation is key, but sometime not focused on…
Many spray booth owners and operators of spray booths will tell you that in hectic periods the preparation phase can and will fall behind schedule. Resulting in longer lead time for the finished the painted objects. Ie commercial vehicles, trucks, trains etc. Preparations is key in the final process of painting the object, but in many cases also the bottleneck.
Prepare your objects in time
Normally most object needs to be prepared before entering the spray booth for painting. You don’t want paint sprayed on certain areas such as glass, fenders etc, and these areas must be masked. And if you are looking at objects being retrofitted, one would need to make the surface smooth again, removing rust and so on. The latter involves adding material to uneven surface and sanding it down to a smooth surface. All this is manual work which takes time. The goal is to do this as fast as possible and get the object ready for the paint process. It is the finished goods you get paid for, not the job in between.
Focus on the end-product or the value chain?
Do you have to make choice of what is most important? The end-product or the value chain? Well, you don’t. If you consider the end-product to be the most important thing for your company, you should look with eager eyes on the value chain. This is where you save money, increase efficiency, create a safe working environment etc. Your processes reflect your end product. Today, there are efficient solutions which supports your value chain in preparation of the object. Solutions which reduce or eliminate the bottleneck before the object goes into the spray booth for the actual paint job.
Increasing the efficiency in the preparation phase
One way of speeding up the process in the preparation booth is to get rid of all the old ladders and scaffolds. They demand space, and in some cases, are designed for only one type of object. You should install some more flexible solutions. Solutions which allow the workers to spend most of their time in a working position. Instead of being on the ground moving and climbing ladders or scaffolds. Autonomous pneumatic man lifts, such as the LIFTMAN can be used both in the preparation booth and in the spray booth. Liftman is offering a flexible solution. The owner can move the man lift to different ends of the processes depending on the workload in the different phases.
Increasing the safety for the workers
Where regular or frequent access to height is required, permanent safe access arrangements should be installed. Meaning that ladders, if used, should not be used. A survey from Health and Safety Executive, shows that accidents from ladders from work at height is approx 40%. Normally this should be steps and platform with handrails (1.1 meter). A LIFTMAN will improve the safety of the workers in a preparation booth.
Why use pneumatic autonomous man lifts?
Getting rid of all old ladders and scaffolds, opens the floor for a more flexible work processes. With LIFTMAN, the workers can stay longer in their work positions. They can move around on the object to execute the different tasks. They can do this without having to move around on ground level to move and position ladders or scaffolds. Further, the operators will at all times be in a safe environment, secured by rails around the cage of the man lift. Liftman is fitted with an extra air outlet inside the cage, and there will not be any hoses laying around on the floor. Changing air tools is simple and time saving process. The operators will of course not tire as easily as when working from ladder or scaffolds. They will get into the right positions without hassle and correct work positions with a LIFTMAN man lift.
What can such an investment do for your business?
Of course, everything depends on how you have organized your work and process today. All investments should have an positive impact on your business. A pneumatic Liftman man lift will increase the the efficiency in a preparation area. The longer the object is, the more efficiency you will gain. In business cases, the increase, has varied from 30% to 40% increase compare to scaffolds. In some special cases an increase of 50-60% have been the output. The jobs get done faster, bottlenecks avoided. Resulting in invoices are sent faster out to the customer, combined with keeping the operators safe. In short. The workflow can be increased. The cashflow become more solid. And accidents can be avoided. A healthy investment for your business.
