Material handling business sees quick start

There’s scant evidence of impending economic recession, it would seem, at Bremac Material Handling Solutions.

“We anticipated things getting off to a slow start, and that hasn’t happened,” Mackenzie Hootman said. “A lot of companies have had big projects pop up, so whatever the changes for those companies were, it allowed them the funding to add and grow.

“We have a couple companies that are adding new locations, and some that are growing and need new storage.”

She and husband Marcus Hootman launched Bremac — the name comes from the couple’s children, Bryer, Emersyn and Macale — just in January after his employers in the same field retired.

“As we started to job hunt, he always wanted to own his own business,” Mackenzie recalled. “He said, ‘Let’s do it. I know how to do it, I know how to make it work,’ and we started our own company.”

That previous job gave Marcus 15 years’ experience in helping local companies manage their production flow and inventory storage problems.

Bremac starts with on-site consultations to assess a customer’s requirements. The ensuing design process determines the specialized shelving, racks, conveyors and lift trucks needed to most efficiently handle the product that flows through the facility.

“Warehouses, manufacturers, distribution centers — those are the primary customers,” Mackenzie said.

“We also have a lot of smaller companies and individuals that stop in. We also have a lot of rigging that the construction and towing services will stop in and pick up” supplies.

Whatever their specific need, Bremac customers are all seeking to squeeze waste out of distribution.

“Some of those we’re working on right now are saying, ‘This is our space, how do we make it more efficient without trying to build on to it?’” Marcus said.

“We need to get different lifts and get the aisles narrowed to get more storage in that space because they have to store more. They’re making more product and they’ll run out of room.”

Making an existing space more efficient can be a challenge.

“It gets tough,” Marcus said, indicating the floor plan of a customer’s warehouse on his computer screen. “They’re trying to maximize the space, and they’ve only got seven-foot clearance. So we’re looking at, what equipment can we use to get this to meet their needs for storage?

“We’re working with another company that makes narrow-reach, higher-lift equipment to find out what they have. Let’s build the rack around that equipment and see if we can make this work. We’re waiting to hear back what that’s going to run in cost, and is it worth that for getting an extra aisle in,”

New technology brings new efficiency, too.

Marcus noted some customers are moving away from radio-frequency identification, or RFID, which uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects in warehouse. Newer systems use artificial intelligence to read a simple printed label.

“They’ve made huge improvements to that as technology improves,” he said. “It’s just guided by cameras and sensors, so you don’t have to have the RF cues on the floor anymore, or the magnetic strips.

“The technology even five years ago wasn’t quite there yet. It’s a lot more efficient. Someone is able to set that skid down and it’s able to read that quickly. That’s a big thing.”

Whether manufacturers and shippers are aiming to have more inventory on hand in the wake of pandemic-related supply-chain disruptions or a simple continued striving for efficiency, it keeps Bremac’s six full-time employees and three temporary workers hired for this summer’s projects busy.

“Right now, we’ve got stuff going on in Madison, Wisc.,” Marcus said. “We’ve got stuff going on in Omaha.”

But “mostly Iowa and the surrounding area. There’s a lot of new development just here on the southwest side, a lot of big businesses coming to town in that industrial park they’ve set aside.”

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