handling fork lift trucks l Flexi
Leading packaging film company Golden Valley has increased storage capacity at its Gloucester warehouse by 25% by switching to Flexi articulated fork lift trucks.
Golden Valley is a specialist provider of hand- and machine-applied pallet wrapping film. It has more than doubled its turnover every year since launching and chairman Colin Griffiths is optimistic that this impressive growth rate can be maintained. To ensure that the company is always in a position to meet its order fulfilment pledge, Golden Valley relies on a robust supply chain model. Some £1.5m of stock is stored at the company's Stonehouse warehouse unit with film deliveries arriving from suppliers around the world on a daily basis.
UK – and so NACCO understands rental. This really helps us to develop packages for the rental market, and to be a lot more creative in a way we haven't dared to be before. "We have proved we have consistently sustained profitability, allowing the parent company to give us a longer-term commitment. The business is fully funded – we don't have to go to a financial house to fund our fleet, giving us stability and flexibility. [Briggs' parent company] Sammons have committed to double the size of their fork lift truck business globally in the next three-to-five years ($500m to $1bn) by putting cash behind it. The business is 100% owned by the employees.
"In the UK, we have gone from survival to stability. We now want to be the best employee-driven and customer focussed business in the UK. We've had a record year, in terms of profitability and customer retention. We've about 95% customer retention. We've not lost a single significant customer as a result of the switch to Yale. It's about the robustness of the trucks, and the speed at which NACCO is responding to us is in a different league.
"I'm very upbeat – there are lots of changes afoot driven by the need to give the customers different products and services."
30 ShD January 2012
www.PressOnShD.com
Above, left: Golden Valley’s reconfigured warehouse with a Flexi VNA truck operating in a 1.8m-wide aisle.
Above, right John Hunt, Flexi's new business development manager for the North West region.
Below:
Engineering graduates Tony Magee (left) and Steve Millar have joined
Jungheinrich's Systems & Projects Division.
Such has been Golden Valley's success that the company's warehouse was soon approaching capacity. A number of options were considered – from outsourcing the storage function to a 3PL to moving to a bigger site. After an extensive consultation process, Golden Valley eventually elected to make optimum use of their existing facility by developing with Flexi Narrow Aisle a very narrow aisle aisle (VNA) storage scheme served by a Flexi VNA articulated fork lift truck. Before the switch to Flexi articulated truck technology, Golden Valley's aisles had been set at 3.1m wide and pallet loads of film had been put away and retrieved using a reach truck. 3.1m was the narrowest aisle width that the reach truck could safely operate within. Flexi Narrow Aisle's warehouse planning team were able to demonstrate that, by replacing the reach truck with a Flexi, VNA Golden Valley would be able to reduce the aisles to 1.8m wide.
The move has enabled Golden Valley to add extra runs of racking, which has increased pallet capacity by some 25%. The racking design allows pallets to be stored on seven levels – the highest of which is 9m.
The pallet put-away and picking is undertaken by the Flexi VNA truck. Says Colin Griffiths: “The introduction of Flexi truck technology allowed us to reduce aisle widths to maximise storage capacity while maintaining a safe and productive operation that allows fast and efficient pallet put away and retrieval cycles.”
Elsewhere at Flexi, John Hunt has been appointed as the company's new business development manager for the North West region. He replaces Roy Windsor who has retired having completed nearly 30 years with Flexi Narrow Aisle.
Jungheinrich
Another company making significant appointments is Jungheinrich UK Ltd., which has further strengthened its Systems & Projects Division with the appointment of two new project engineers – Tony Magee and Steve Millar.
“Our appointment of Tony and Steve emphasises Jungheinrich’s commitment to the market and our determination to meet the ongoing needs of our growing customer base, as well as our drive to develop new talent within our organisation” says Steve Richmond, general manager of Jungheinrich UK Ltd’s Systems & Projects Division.
“We find that our clients are increasingly looking for a ‘single source’ supplier of materials handling equipment and, with our extensive product range, Jungheinrich is able to offer manual, semi-automated and fully automated handling solutions. “Steve and Tony will join our team of experienced engineers and designers who can see a project through from the initial concept to the detailed design and implementation stages and provide ongoing project management once a system has gone ‘live.’”
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