4 Questions to Ask Before Buying Conveyors4 Questions to Ask Before Buying Conveyors

Conveyors rarely make headlines. But this summer, Fast Company magazine reported that Japan’s government will build an automated, 310-mile conveyor belt dubbed the “Autoflow-Road” between Tokyo and Osaka to carry the freight of up to 25,000 trucks per day. A critical shortage of delivery drivers and ballooning freight spurred plans for the highly customized solution.

Despite the under-the-radar nature of conveyors, the construction and technology that go into today’s conveyance solutions impact operations (for good or bad) like never before. Finding a conveyor at a competitive price is a good thing. But before buyers settle on what they see as the best price for a conveyance system, they should ask the manufacturer or integrator the following four questions.

1. How customizable is the conveyance system?

Conveyance system manufacturers often describe their offerings as having a flexible design. Buyers should delve into what flexibility means for their application. For instance, flexibility could mean accommodating a variety of geometries (such as, box, bag, and envelope) and weight ranges. Flexibility could also entail ergonomic designs that bring a package comfortably to an employee’s reach and reduce the number of manual adjustments workers make to a package winding along a conveyor.

Adjustable conveyors can eliminate worker strains and sprains, too. What’s that worth? According to OSHA’s Safety Pays estimator for calculating injury costs, a worker who strains themself to the point of injury could cost a company $32,023.  

Sometimes customization is about building a conveyance system to withstand the demands of an application over the long haul — in decades versus years. In the automotive industry, heavier components require structural reinforcement and heavy-duty conveyor rollers and bearings. This is an added cost. But if a less-sturdy, less-costly design stops working unexpectedly, there are costs to replace the system or lost sales due to a production stoppage. The Engineering and Mining Journal reported last year that production at Rio Tinto’s Utah-based Kennecott mine dropped 36% between 2022 and 2023 due to a conveyor problem.

2. How do you define sustainability?

Buyers may take a manufacturer’s claim about sustainability at face value or simply want to hear that a product is sustainable to check a box. Whether a manufacturer defines sustainability as recyclable components, energy efficiency, or something else, procurement professionals should pinpoint what’s meant by the term to gauge their total cost of ownership.

For example, if a conveyor (with energy-efficient motors consuming $0.10 per kWh) costs $100,000 to buy and install; and operates 2,000 hours per year; these motors may offset the inefficiencies of another “less-sustainable” design. Perhaps the conveyor runs only when packages are present; this energy-saving feature may have a greater impact on TCO than motor efficiency. A sample TCO calculation could be:

TCO = Initial Costs + Operating Costs + Maintenance Costs

Energy costs would be part of operating costs, and the conveyor owner could subtract from TCO any residual value (that is, any value the conveyor still holds at the end of its work life).

Alternatively, gravity conveyors, which are a common entry point to automation, eliminate energy costs altogether. If supporting a process without depleting resources like energy is a company’s aim, gravity conveyors meet the definition of sustainable. Warehousing and distribution are just a few industries where gravity conveyors play a role.

Perhaps a manufacturer defines sustainability as reusability. Some manufacturers make conveyor rollers reusable through bearing replacement, which prolongs the life of the roller and reduces disposal costs. Knowing what a manufacturer or integrator means by sustainability will help procurement and supply chain professionals accurately calculate TCO.

L to R: Roller bed, skate-wheel, and telescoping conveyors. (ProVeyance Group)

3. How does this conveyor optimize my supply chain?

Recent disruptions around the globe — for example, the Suez Canal blockage by the Ever Given and attacks by Houthi militants in the Red Sea — have caused supply chain professionals to consider scenarios that impact operations. Building flexible logistics is the goal. Buying conveyance systems that accommodate quickly scaling up or down operations, depending on supply chain conditions, should factor into purchases.

Practically speaking, this could mean a system that allows its user to quickly attach a new conveyor line, add a divert that maintains a package’s orientation, or easily connect a pusher to send a product at a 90-degree angle. Buying a conveyance system that can scale up operations could also mean handling varying load volumes or integrating with advanced logistics software.

4. What’s your approach to quality?

Fundamentally, a manufacturer should invest in advanced manufacturing technologies (for example, 3D printing for rapid prototyping) and have a quality control process (that is, ISO Certification) to ensure quality. Consistency of materials used in manufacturing is crucial. That’s because superior products maintain uniform material properties. Choosing superior products ensures every component performs as expected without weak points that could lead to premature failure.

Any manufacturing process will run into snags, though. It’s important to ask how the manufacturer has responded in the past when this happens. Are there redundancies built into the manufacturer’s supply chain to deliver not only quality but also on-time delivery? Is the manufacturer sourcing material from low-cost regions as well as domestic sources to construct a backup plan?

Final thoughts.

Conveyance systems are foundational to automation — a kind of connective tissue for plants. Procurement professionals should work with their supply chain counterparts to ensure a conveyor won’t be a limiting factor, or weak link, for operations. Among the best ways to do this is asking questions to understand what a procurement professional is (and isn’t) getting for the money.