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Feature Warehousing & storage


Film firm increases storage capacity


Leading packaging film company Golden Valley has increased storage capacity at its Gloucester warehouse by 25 per cent by switching to Flexi Narrow Aisle articulated forklift trucks


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olden Valley is a specialist provider of hand and machine- applied pallet wrapping film. Started just three years ago, it has established itself as one of the leading suppliers of film to merchants and end users throughout the UK. The company has more than dou- bled its turnover every year since launching and chairman Colin Griffiths is optimistic that this impres- sive growth rate can be maintained. According to Griffiths, Golden


Valley's success can be attributed in part to the company's policy of promising next day delivery to cus- tomers in an industry where long lead times had become the accepted norm. To ensure the company can 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 daily. Such has been Golden Valley’s suc- cess 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. Golden Valley eventually elected to make optimum use of its existing facil- ity by developing with Flexi Narrow Aisle a very narrow aisle aisle (VNA) storage scheme served by a Flexi VNA articulated forklift truck.


Before the switch to Flexi articu- lated truck technology, Golden Valley’s aisles had been set at 3.1 metres wide and pallet loads of film had been put away and retrieved using a reach truck. The 3.1 metres was the narrowest aisle width that the reach truck could safely operate within. Flexi Narrow Aisle’s warehouse planning team was able to demon- strate that, by replacing the reach truck with a Flexi, VNA Golden Valley would be able to reduce the aisles to 1.8 metres wide.


The move enabled Golden Valley to add extra runs of racking, which has increased pallet capacity by some 25 per cent. The racking design allows pallets to be stored on seven levels – the highest of which is nine metres. In addition, an area of the warehouse has been dedicated to block stacking. All pallet put-away and picking


Packaging film company Golden Valley has


increased storage capacity by 25 per cent thanks to Flexi Narrow Aisle articulated forklifts


Flexi Narrow Aisle T: 0121 557 6242 www.flexi.co.uk Enter 361


programme by Righton, the independent metal and plastics stockholder. Righton’s eight service centres have over 30,000m² of warehousing and it


Expansion creates seven miles of storage T


hree contracts worth £500,000 completed by Pro-Dek Storage Systems have provided nearly seven miles of storage as part of a major expansion


stocks more than 10,000 standard items at a time, as well as a range of non-stan- dard items. A computerised stock location system allows orders to be processed for next-day delivery from over 6,000 tonnes of material. The company is a long- standing materials supplier for Ministry of Defence projects, enabling it to stock large quantities of materials and components for the two 65,000-tonne Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers now being built for the Royal Navy. Pro-Dek was appointed to provide a wide variety of cantilever racking, shelving, mezzanine flooring and parts storage


at new premises near Manchester and Glasgow and an existing warehouse in Birmingham with a total floor area of 10,000m². All three projects were completed in two phases, with cantilever and pallet racking being installed in the first phases, followed by mezzanine floors and long-span shelving for storing components and fittings in phase two. At Manchester the contract involved building partly over existing offices in order to maximise storage capacity. Beneath


the three mezzanines heavy-duty long-span shelving, close-boarded with timber and rated at 800kg per shelf, was installed for large, heavy items, while on the upper levels smaller components and fittings are stored on medium-specifi- cation shelving with galvanised steel mesh enclosures that form individual compartments for efficient stock control. Pro-Dek Storage Systems


T: 0114 244 0100 S14 www.pro-dek.co.uk Enter 362


within the racking and the block storage area is undertaken by the Flexi VNA truck while unloading and loading incoming and departing trailers in the yard is shared between the Flexi and Golden Valley’s counterbalanced truck. “The introduction of Flexi truck technology allowed us to reduce aisle widths to maximise storage capacity while maintaining a safe and produc- tive operation that allows fast and effi- cient pallet put away and retrieval cycles,” says Colin Griffiths. The most recent addition to the Flexi Narrow Aisle range of articulated forklift trucks, the Flexi VNA is a true four-wheel articulated truck designed to require minimal manoeuvring in the aisleways without investment in high cost guided truck systems. The truck’s excellent manoeuvrability and out- standing visibility results in faster pallet put-away and picking. “The Flexi VNA allows accurate positioning of pallets within the aisle and when block stacking up to five pallets high,” says Griffiths. John Maguire, sales and marketing director of Flexi Narrow Aisle, says: “Some articulated trucks require the operator to perform a three-point turn in the aisleway before a pallet can be put-away or picked. Thanks to its ‘true radius’ rear chassis design, the Flexi VNA requires only one turn to enter or de-stack a pallet.


“This results in significant time sav- ings and eliminates product and rack- ing damage in the aisles when turning. In any application involving articu- lated trucks the amount of time spent in the aisleway picking and putting away pallets has to be minimised if optimum operational efficiencies are to be achieved.”


Flexi Narrow Aisle developed and launched the Flexi articulated truck concept more than 20 years ago. Since then over 5,000 units have been sold.


MARCH 2012 Materials Handling & Logistics


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