KNAPP UK’s resident customer
support team at the distribution
centre of shoe retailer Clarks has
used thermal imaging techniques to
save the customer in excess of a
quarter of a million pounds in
potential repair and downtime costs
in just three months.

State-of-the-art thermal imaging
cameras are used routinely at all four
of KNAPP’s UK sites with a resident
service team. Explains Ebb
Kretschmer, head of customer
services: “We use thermal imaging as
part of our regular maintenance
regimes. It is highly effective and
allows us to be proactive rather than
reactive to faults and failures.”
At Clarks’ warehouse in Somerset,
thermal imaging highlighted a
damaged motor and gearbox, a
problem PLC, a phase imbalance on
a shrink-wrapping machine and
damage to the X-axis on a stacker
crane.

Kevin Ashman, site manager, says:
“We would never have found these
risky problems at this stage without
the thermal imaging equipment.

Correcting these faults in a
controlled way avoided breakdowns
that would have been extremely
costly for Clarks.”