Manufacturing and design of low cost stackable drawer for mass production

Abstract

This thesis explores a next generation storage unit design for warehouses that increases stiffness, decreases assembly time, maintains or improves gross cubic utilization (GCU) - the amount of total available space that is actually utilized by product within the unit-while minimizing costs related to onsite assembly, shipping, packaging and manufacturing. This work focuses specifically on a stackable based storage solution in which machinery could stack and unstack different totes to stow and retrieve product. This is a descriptive thesis of the engineering design process - problem and goal identification, background research, functional requirements, creative idea generation and analysis, concept selection and iteration, design verification, and implementation - is used to propose a solution. Concept designs are primarily explored in CAD models. Designs are verified and analyzed for mechanical integrity through finite element analysis and manufacturing, packaging and assembly costs are analyzed to ensure feasible implementation. The proposed design weighed 3701b, had 82.5% GCU and took about 17.2 minutes to assemble. The manufacturing costs were $376.52; the packaging and logistics costs were $24.98 and $15.72 respectively; the onsite assembly costs resulted in $11.70. These costs totaled up to $429.52 for a stackable pod.