Find out how many containers each round carries, whether one handler can hold the cycle, how many carts to buy and how much stock to keep at each station.
Pre-sizing and estimating tool: results do not replace design, calculations or reports signed by a licensed professional, nor verification against the applicable codes and standards.
Containers per round (average and on the heaviest round), weight and minimum stock to keep at each station.
Breakdown of one round’s time (on the heaviest round), compared with the cycle and the maximum utilization.
For each possible cycle: handler utilization (bars) and containers kept at the stations (line).
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It is a fixed route on which a material handler (also called mizusumashi or water spider) leaves the supermarket, visits every station on a regular schedule, delivers full containers and collects empties or kanban cards. It replaces on-call forklift trips with small, frequent deliveries and less line-side stock.
The cycle is the interval between two visits to the same station. A short cycle cuts line-side stock but needs more rounds. In the example, at 30 min the round takes about 14 min (47% of one handler); the cycle chart shows that 20 min would still fit one handler (67%), with 17 containers at the stations instead of 24.
Multiply the product’s hourly output by the part quantity in the bill of materials, adding up all products that use the same part. If output varies, use the busiest hour of the shift, or the calculator will undersize the round.
Follow a few real rounds with a stopwatch: time to stop and pull away at each station, and time to swap each container (take the full one, place it, collect the empty). With gravity racks and small bins, 8 to 15 s per container is common; the example uses 12 s.
Because in the most common routine the card from a used container is collected on one round and the full container arrives on the next. Meanwhile the station keeps using parts. In the example, Assembly A uses 120 parts per hour: 2 cycles of 30 min plus 20% safety give 144 parts, or 4 containers of 40.
Each train needs one round’s carts times the number of sets: one on the road and one being loaded at the supermarket. In the example, 12 containers per round on 8-container carts means 2 carts per train; with 2 sets, 4 carts.
It assumes constant usage, a visit to every station each round and a balanced split of stations when there is more than one handler. It ignores traffic, crossings and supermarket queues. For routes with many different parts, check the cart’s physical space and tugger safety rules (OSHA 1910.178).
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