When people ask me about my job, I choose my words carefully. If I tell them I’m Vice President of Operations, their eyes usually glaze over or dart around the room to find an escape route. Even my mom doesn’t quite understand what I do for a living. She still thinks I make the conveyor belts at the grocery store check-out line.
Truth is, I wear many hats at UNEX. Sometimes, I’m a sleuth, working with my UNEX team to help customers figure out what’s bogging down their pick lines or how to squeeze 1,000 more SKUs into the same footprint. Other times, I get to play inventor and customize just the right wheel bed, carton flow or gravity conveyor line to help things move faster, smoother and safer for workers.
One of the best places to see the work I do with the UNEX team is to take a walk around our very own manufacturing facility. Our workers are picking, assembling and producing thousands of rollers, conveyors, carts, workstations and more every day. One of the reasons why so many manufacturers trust us is because UNEX is a manufacturer, too. We are well-aware of the day-to-day challenges that can get in the way of productivity and worker safety, which is why we use our own products to keep us organized and efficient. We understand that there’s no time—and no space—to waste.
Let me show you what I mean. At our UNEX manufacturing facility, we use Flow Cell to keep materials organized and easy to reach—because workers are assembling hundreds of Span-Track lanes a day.
We use gravity conveyor and customized carts to transfer thousands of rollers a day from the production machines to tables and in the assembly areas.
Our carton flow tracks create the perfect storage solution for all the nuts and bolts our people pick.
In our supply room, UNEX racks organize and hold copy paper, coffee cups, paper products and other essential office supplies. Our carton flow solutions keep our marketing materials neat and easily accessible, from lanyards used at trade shows to boxes filled with product literature. Our gravity conveyor and totes catch scraps of material like metal slugs to keep our floors debris-free.
One of the perks of working at UNEX is that whenever we need a storage, picking or assembly solution, it’s already in the building. We never have to run over to Lowe’s. Instead, we simply pick from our own parts, and before you know it, we’ve customized just the right solution for the job. I even customized a coat rack for my office with a fancy butcher block top.
There are other perks, too. Not too long ago, UNEX sold gravity conveyor to a manufacturing company in Wisconsin. A few days later, a special thank-you package arrived at my desk: a big wheel of Wisconsin cheese. My friends and family say the gift means I’m no longer Vice President of Operations. Now, I’m just the Big Cheese.
