PURPOSE: To increase production efficiency in a system as referred to the titled which consists of a punching press and others by directly combining the system with a receiving and issuing station which consists of racks and a stacker crane in an automatic storaging warehouse.

CONSTITUTION: A stacker crane 17 is operated with a pallet carriage 14 placed at a receiving and issuing station to issue a sheet metal W which is of desired size, thickness and material, together with a pallet from assigned container zones on a rack 16, and to transfer it to the pallet carriage 14 at an issuing station 15. Then, the pallet carriage 14 is moved on a rail 13 to a starting point shown by a dot-dush-line in the figure, a sheet metal at the top is picked up by means of a magnetic sheet metal separator 44 located at the starting point, then is transferred to either a punching press 1 or shearing machine 2 by a loader, or is turned in to an automatic storaging warehouse 18 by way of a drop type stocking device 9. This configuration permits changes in work to be accomplished in a short time, and also permits production efficiency to increase with the minimum process waiting time.