FEATURE LIFT TRUCKS PAY REVIEW TIME?


With a reach truck’s role mainly putting away and picking palletised loads within racking aisles operators are increasingly seen as the least cost efficient of warehouse employees, says John Maguire


W


ithin any non-automated warehouse operation labour costs


are likely to represent the most significant overhead. Of all the staff employed to work on the ‘shop floor’ within a warehouse it is reach truck operators who are most likely to command the highest salary. Although figures will vary depending on the geographical location of the operation a picker/packer working in a typical midlands-based distribution centre is likely to be paid £8-9 per hour while a counterbalance truck driver will receive £9-10. An experienced reach truck operator working at the same site will probably earn a premium of 10% more than a counterbalance truck driver yet move 30% less tonnage per day. Possibly as a result of their higher


earning potential, in our experience - and this is a view shared by many of the people that we meet in the global intralogistics industry - reach truck operators are often perceived by their colleagues as having a lofty sense of their own importance and are unlikely to get involved with any task that they consider beneath their pay grade. They are, they contend, well trained specialists and can be reluctant to step out of their cabs – even if the work pattern of the day requires an extra pair of hands. However, with the reach truck’s role


largely confined to putting away and picking palletised loads within the


racking aisles at significantly lower rates than a forklift it could be argued that reach truck operators are the least cost efficient of all warehouse employees. We have certainly noticed a willingness


among warehouse operators – particularly 3PLs to explore ways of reducing the number of reach trucks in their forklift fleets. Apart from a desire to save storage space and improve productivity the trend away from reach trucks is being driven by a wish to minimise employment costs. The fact that someone with counterbalance truck driving experience can quickly be shown how to operate Flexi articulated forklift trucks safely and efficiently is, we believe one of the key reasons why Flexis are replacing reach trucks in warehouses up and down the UK and around the world.


ON THE JOB OPERATOR TRAINING Operator training can take place `on the job’ and after a few hours most conclude that it is easier to stack pallets with a Flexi than it is to park a car. The speed at which even a novice Flexi articulated truck operator can pick and put away palletised loads means the Flexi scores highly in any reach truck comparison. A reach truck uses either a pantograph type mast which with its scissors-like mechanism extends its forks forward from the mast to place or retrieve a pallet or a moving-mast which rolls forward within reach legs for pallet


placement and retrieval into or out of the racking and to place a pallet on the floor. A Flexi is designed to enter an aisle with the palletised load to the front. It then articulates up to 100 degrees before placing the forks into the racking or collecting a pallet. In practice, users of the articulated truck concept know that this allows pallets to be picked and put away notably faster than when a reach truck is deployed. Furthermore, because an articulated truck does not have to waste time reaching and driving in and out of the racking to retrieve a pallet the work cycle is far more efficient. Our in-house tests to compare the picking efficiency of a reach truck with an articulated truck demonstrated that during an identical one hour work cycle a Flexi moved 35 loads compared to a reach truck’s 25. It is widely accepted that labour accounts for as much as 50% of a warehouse’s operating costs. If you’ve got too many reach trucks in your fleet and too many operators on your pay roll it could be costing you even more.


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


ARTICULATED TRUCK KEY TO DOUBLING PALLET CAPACITY


Bluemay Weston produces non-metallic components used by manufacturing companies operating in industry sectors from aerospace to cosmetics. Purpose-built in 2008, with the company’s output growing all the time the original layout of its 25,000 sq ft warehouse was not able to cope with the resultant increase in throughput of raw materials and components leaving the production line. The management team sought a solution to their storage space problem that minimised capital costs and achieved a fast payback. It was decided in Spring 2015 to reconfigure the pallet racking within the


existing facility around a narrow aisle layout and replace the counterbalanced truck with a Flexi AC NANO articulated truck from Narrow Aisle. By condensing the warehouse aisles Bluemay Weston was able to accommodate extra pallet racking locations within the store while the height of the racking was increased to 5 metres at the top beam, resulting in an increase in pallet capacity at the unit of well over 50%. The Flexi AC NANO articulated truck is far more space efficient than the


forklift truck that Bluemay Weston had previously relied on. Thanks to its front wheel drive technology that allows the truck’s front end and load to articulate through 220 degrees the NANO offers optimum pallet put-away


S4 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 | MATERIALS HANDLING & LOGISTICS


and retrieval in aisles as narrow as 1.6 metres. As the warehouse redesign and switch to Flexi articulated truck technology has more than doubled Bluemay Weston’s storage capacity the company can now buy in raw materials in far greater quantities than previously possible, resulting in a drop in the purchase price paid while easing a production issue. “Such has been the increase in demand for our products since the


warehouse was originally built we only had the space to store some six weeks’ worth of expanded polyethylene – one of our key raw materials,” says sales manager Kevin Bendle. “Our expanded polyethylene supplier was quoting a lead time between


ordering and delivery of 8 weeks. With only enough storage capacity to hold 6 weeks stock we faced a potentially devastating supply chain shortfall. However, thanks to the extra pallet capacity the reconfiguration and the Flexi NANO has brought this is no longer an issue.” A further benefit resulting from the warehouse redesign is that now the


narrow aisle storage cube allows raw materials to be stored flat whereas previously they needed to be coiled. The problem with coiled materials is that when removed from storage and sent to the production lines they would sometimes prove difficult to machine as they had become curved.


/ MATERIALSHANDLINGLOGISTICS


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