Mobile Shelving for a Northrop Grumman Facility: Salt Lake City, Utah
How a mobile shelving system with a companion pallet rack add-on organized parts and materials storage at a Northrop Grumman facility in Salt Lake City.
Customer
Northrop Grumman, a Salt Lake City area facility
Industry
Aerospace and defense manufacturing
Product
Mobile shelving system with plywood-decked carriages, plus static shelving and a small pallet rack section
Application
Parts, tooling and materials storage supporting manufacturing operations
About the project
Northrop Grumman is a global aerospace and defense company with a long-standing manufacturing presence in the Salt Lake City area. This project supplied storage equipment to one of the company’s Salt Lake City facilities: a mobile shelving system for the main storage requirement, a companion pallet rack section added on the same order, and static shelving for materials elsewhere in the building.
Material Handling USA designed the mobile shelving system to the facility’s own layout drawing, supplied it with our partner Aurora Storage, and installed it with our own crew.
Project scope at a glance
The situation
A manufacturing facility running multiple lines and programs accumulates parts, tooling and materials faster than a single storage strategy can absorb. Some of it is small and frequent — parts and hardware that need a labeled bin close to where they’re used. Some of it is bulky and occasional — larger components or overflow that a pallet position handles better than a shelf. And some of it just needs a lot of square footage, which is where mobile shelving earns its keep.
Rather than force everything onto one storage type, this project matched each need to the equipment suited to it: a mobile system for the largest storage requirement, static shelving with labeling for parts that need to be found by category, and a small pallet rack addition for overflow — all on the same purchase order.
What Material Handling USA supplied
The mobile shelving system was built to match the facility’s own drawing — roughly seventeen feet wide by nearly sixteen feet deep — with plywood decking on the carriage shelves, a detail the customer specified for the load being stored. Carriages run on a floor-mounted rail and are moved by hand, opening one aisle at a time so the block behind stays closed and protected until it’s needed.
The system was built with our partner Aurora Storage, one of the manufacturers we use for high-density mobile shelving. On the same order, a small pallet rack section was added — eight ten-foot-high, forty-two-inch-deep uprights with matching beams and wire decking — sized for overflow that doesn’t suit shelving rather than as a full pallet storage system.
Both systems were supplied with freight and installed by our own crew at the facility.
Static shelving and labeling
Elsewhere in the building, static steel shelving handles materials that don’t need a moving aisle. The shelving here runs non-slotted — plain shelves rather than pegboard-style slotted backs — sized for parts and bulk items rather than filing, in twelve-inch and twenty-inch depths with reinforced supports for heavier loads.
Card holders mounted on the uprights let staff label what’s in each section at a glance, which matters when several shelving runs hold similar-looking parts for different programs or lines. A later order added more of the same shelving and backstops, which is the ordinary sign of a system that’s being used and is growing rather than one that was oversized up front and left alone.
What the facility gained
Mixing mobile shelving, static shelving and pallet rack
| Mobile shelving (used here) | Static shelving (used here) | Pallet rack (used here) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | The largest storage volume, in a limited floor area | Frequently accessed parts organized by category | Bulky overflow that doesn’t suit shelving |
| Access | One aisle opens at a time, by hand | Every section open all the time | Forklift-accessed pallet positions |
| Labeling | Dividers and card holders as needed | Card holders on the uprights | Bay/level signage |
| Floor use | Efficient — ranges share one aisle | An aisle per range | Aisle sized for forklift travel |
| Grew via | Sized to the drawing at time of order | Follow-on order for more sections | Sized as a small add-on, not a full system |
Mobile shelving and storage solutions for manufacturing across Utah
Material Handling USA is based in Salt Lake City and supplies mobile shelving, static shelving and pallet racking to aerospace, defense and manufacturing facilities throughout Utah. We build systems to a facility’s own drawing, supply through manufacturer partners including Aurora Storage, and install with our own crews.
Related pages: the mobile shelving hub, retrofitting mobile shelving into an existing building, and Storeganizer for aerospace and defense parts storage.
Call (800) 326-4403 to have a storage system laid out for a manufacturing facility.
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Frequently asked questions
What was actually supplied on this project?
Why plywood decking on the mobile shelving carriages?
Why add pallet rack instead of more mobile shelving?
What are the card holders on the static shelving for?
Can mobile shelving, static shelving and pallet rack be quoted together?
Does Material Handling USA serve manufacturing and defense facilities in Utah?
Who manufactures the mobile shelving used on this project?
Can an existing system like this be expanded later?
Need mobile shelving, static shelving or pallet rack for a manufacturing facility?
Send us your room dimensions and what has to be stored, and we will lay out the right mix of equipment — including a plan drawing to check before anything ships. Utah installs and service from our Salt Lake City base.