Storage Space & Efficiency Improved
March 3rd 2005

A fleet of FLEXI lift trucks from Narrow Aisle has helped a pharmaceutical manufacturer increase its storage capacity by 50% and support its brand expansion plans

The finished goods warehouse and distribution centre operates a system where products are collected from the production lines and stored in the warehouse ready for transfer to the packaging lines

An expansion in the business led to an immediate demand for increased space at the warehouse

At the time the company was operating a double deep system with the 3m wide aisles served by pantograph and counterbalance trucks. Warehouse managers realised this system would not enable them to create the extra pallet capacity needed to accommodate the additional spaced needed

“We considered a number of solutions including dedicated VNA trucks but knew they would not give us the flexibility of outside operation

Our racking supplier suggested reducing the aisle widths to 2m serviced by an articulated truck.” explains order preparation manager, Ross Henderson

“We trialled three trucks and after the trial period the FLEXI came out top in our drivers’ survey

We also carried out an efficiency study on all the trucks and the FLEXI fared very well.” Three FLEXI’s were specified and the firm has raised its pallet capacity by over 1500 to 4500 – an increase of 50% storage space in the same building envelope.

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