In-house Manufacturing:
The Backbone of Carter Intralogistics
As a 40+ year industry veteran, Carter Intralogistics (formerly Carter Control Systems) has an established history of providing a variety of material handling solutions to clients around the country. These solutions have ranged from control systems in the company’s early years, to specialized MDR conveyor for the postal industry and more recently robotics and order fulfillment solutions. As technologies and industries have changed, so has Carter. The flexibility to pivot and adjust what solutions are available has been a core tenant of the Carter Intralogistics’ model throughout it all. These traits of flexibility, innovation and diversity in solutions offered can be attributed to one thing — Carter’s in-house manufacturing capabilities.
The team at Carter Intralogistics takes pride in manufacturing all their own MDR Conveyor solutions for many reasons. First, it directly supports the US economy and provides jobs for Americans. Carter provides hundreds of manufacturing jobs across their three manufacturing plants: Geoffrey, Monroe and Coleman. The Geoffrey location is in Frederick, MD, serves as the company’s headquarters and is home to the engineering core, R&D team, controls manufacturing and corporate office. Opened in mid-2020 and also in Frederick, the Monroe facility is the newest addition to Carter’s manufacturing machine and nearly doubled their manufacturing capacity for CarterMobile™. Monroe is primarily used for final conveyor assemblies so when someone orders MDR conveyor from Carter, it’s shipped directly from Monroe. The Coleman plant is the fabrication plant. It’s a shared facility that fabricates Carter’s conveyor frames and other steel components in addition to cotton ginning parts for Carter’s parent company, Lummus. The Coleman plant has run 24 hours a day with three full shifts churning out conveyor when demand warrants — it’s quite the sight at full capacity!
The second reason in-house manufacturing is so critical for Carter Intralogistics is that it allows us to provide MDR Conveyor solutions with extremely low lead times. CarterFlex™ and CarterMobile™ currently have lead times as low as 1 to 2 weeks. During 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic e-commerce exploded. With all those extra products flying out of distribution centers (DCs) around the country, those DCs needed a way to transport those products around their warehouse at unprecedented rates. Within months conveyor manufacturing around the industry was backlogged as steel prices rose and labor scarcity became a huge issue. The industry still has not caught up and there are backlogged orders of conveyor all over the country as companies bounce back from the pandemic and struggle to fulfill orders. That’s why in mid-2020 Carter opened the Monroe facility and took our manufacturing to the next level. Based on conversations with clients, some conveyor manufacturers are so backlogged their lead times are more than 27 weeks. Carter Intralogistics is actively working to manufacture as much MDR conveyor as possible to help combat these shortages.
The final reason Carter Intralogistics’ in-house manufacturing capabilities is the backbone of Carter’s impact on the material handling industry is that it allows for an extremely robust R&D department. Since Q2 2020, Carter Intralogistics has researched, developed, manufactured and launched two new product lines: CarterMobile™ in May 2020 and CarterFlex™ in February 2021. These two solutions are both rapid-deploy equipment that have served excellently in helping companies deal with increased demands during the pandemic. Carter delivered over six miles of CarterMobile™ within the first two months it was on the market. That number has only continued to rise. Without their in-house manufacturing capabilities, there would not be the capacity for an R&D department that can constantly react to the market.
Carter Intralogistics has Conveyor Units In Stock and Ready to Ship
Carter Intralogistics currently has units of CarterFlex™ and CarterMobile™ in stock and ready to ship. If your organization is running into issues getting rapid-deploy conveyor tech into your warehouse – contact us by email via sales@carterintralogistics.com or (301) 698-9660.
