MRO Today - Supersonic storage

Supersonic storage

At Corporate Jet Support, the ceiling’s the limit for storage

The key to success at Corporate Jet Support (CJS) of Moonachie, NJ is the company’s ability to keep in-demand high-quality airplane parts flying out the door, and doing it faster than their competition. A leading wholesale supplier of Gulfstream aircraft parts, last year Corporate Jet’s unmitigated success was creating a potentially debilitating problem in their storage warehouse.

Simply put, says CJS owner, Chris Breitweiser, “We ran out of room. We had grown out of our existing storage space and were forced to contemplate either moving or expanding our warehouse through expensive construction.”

The problem, as it turned out, was not one of insufficient storage space — the available 10,000 feet of square footage was fine. The problem was a storage system that was not making the best use of the available space. CJS was relying on antiquated, conventional shelving and pallets to store its wide range of fast moving aircraft parts. When Breitweiser contacted Bob Darienzo, at Deluxe Systems of Hackensack, NJ, he learned that he actually had more available storage space than he thought.

Darienzo convinced Breitweiser that he didn’t have to buy a bigger building or organize his inventory better. In fact, a modular storage system from Lista International Corp. could take full advantage of CJS’s available underutilized vertical space, while providing secure, dust-free, organized and highly flexible storage for the company’s entire inventory.

Located in Holliston, MA, Lista International is a world leader in the design and manufacture of innovative, efficient, modular storage systems. As a long-time Lista distributor, Darienzo had seen the benefits of Lista products many times over, particularly in a number of flight department applications, so he knew which products to recommend for CJS’s particular needs.

CJS and Breitweiser purchased a full squadron of 250 HyperSpace (HS) cabinets, plus two Storage Wall systems from Lista. The high density 22 1/2” deep HS Cabinets are designed to make item retrieval easier and reduce reach and strain, with drawers that extend completely from the housing to allow easy access to all the contents. The HS cabinets’ 18” deep drawers require only 36” of aisle space for full drawer extension, so aisle space can be minimized.

CJS captured 10 feet of vertical space by stacking two HS cabinets atop each other. Lista custom-configured the HS drawer interiors using its flexible, modular dividing and partitioning accessories to accommodate the items CJS would be storing everything from small washers to valves, generators and actuators. Each drawer has a 440-pound capacity, ensuring that the contents will be fully supported.

Explained Breitweiser, “We were able to maximize our warehouse height and maintain the flexibility to put thousands of items in a very limited area. We can now hold in one drawer what we previously were storing in three units of conventional shelving. We now have 35,000 different locations in which to store inventory. With our old method, we were only able to store 1/3 of that amount. ”CJS utilizes the Storage Wall systems it purchased to provide a temporary home for long and bulky supplies, such as fluorescent lighting tubes. Lista’s Storage Wall system is unique in that it can combine drawers, shelves and roll-out trays in one space-efficient unit to deliver high cubic density and maximum versatility. CJS custom ordered its Storage Wall units without end panels, so that especially long items can be easily accessed from the open ends of boxes.

Breitweiser particularly likes that the HS cabinets come with a built-in highly secure locking system.

“We deal in used aircraft parts for planes that are no longer being made,” he said, “so many of the parts are difficult to find and very valuable. It’s important to keep a close watch on inventory and to maintain a worry-free security system.”

The items stored in the Storage Wall system are less fragile and costly than those stored in the HS, so locks were not an issue (although the Storage Wall systems are available with a variety of lockable doors). Superior organization, on the other hand, was of paramount concern.

“All the units we purchased from Lista are rock solid and very easy to keep well organized,” Breitweiser said. “With the combination of the different sizes of Lista cabinets, CJS is now able to segregate different types of inventory, while maintaining plenty of room for growth in an area that we thought we had outgrown.”

Overall Breitweiser is extremely pleased with the way the Lista system is keeping aircraft part traffic moving at CJS.

He concluded, “I am extremely pleased with the benefits we’ve gained after switching to the Lista storage system — superior organization, inventory control and fast retrieval that have made us a lot more productive. They are a great company, and they make a strong, durable heavy-gauge steel product. It’s a relief knowing that, with proper care, our Lista storage system can truly last forever.”

CJS captured 10 feet of vertical space by stacking two HS cabinets atop each other. Lista custom-configured the HS drawer interiors using its flexible, modular dividing and partitioning accessories to accommodate the items CJS would be storing — everything from small washers to valves, generators and actuators. Each drawer has a 440 lb. capacity, ensuring that the contents will be fully supported.