[asset_ref id=”460″]
Technology services provider Telent chose Jungheinrich to supply it with a more flexible materials handling and storage system for its 80,000 sq ft central contract marshalling centre in Coventry.
A range of telecommunications products such as printed circuit boards, cables, and cabinets are picked, packed and shipped at the site. And the stock held there is dispatched directly to customers or delivered overnight to Telent’s 2,000-strong force of service engineers.
The forklift manufacturer supplied a mix of electric-powered EFG counterbalance, reach, powered-pallet, and very narrow aisle trucks, on a contract lease with maintenance package. It also supplied and installed the racking and small parts storage shelving system.
The racking system provides more than 3,560 pallet locations for Euro pallets. Most products are put away within the seven level high VNA pallet racking, but those that are more tricky to store, such as the communications cabinets, which measure more than two metres-long and weigh one-third of a tonne, needed a different system.
As a result, Jungheinrich configured a 4.1 metre-wide aisle with two racking faces that enable the wide loads to be manoeuvred and put away more quickly and safely.
Orders picked in the VNA store are left at the end of the aisle, where they are collected by the counterbalance trucks, and taken to a forward pick area. Here, smaller items bound for the same customer are picked from floor level and added to the order before the completed consignment is shrink-wrapped and transferred to the loading bay.
Pallet loads leave on one of three daily deliveries to logistics partner Allport’s facilities around the country, where they are broken down and put into smaller vehicles for onward delivery to Telent’s clients.
The varied size and value of the products and the fact that some are slow-moving or security-sensitive, means they are either directed to a floor level storage area, a secure two-tier mezzanine floor, or a combination of wide aisle and high bay VNA racking.
Incoming products arrive at the site via a single goods-in bay suitable for 7.5-tonne wagons and a further two bays designed to receive transit vans and other light commercial vehicles.
Outgoing orders leave through four goods-out bays suitable for the large lorries operated by Allport, while another bay is dedicated to receiving and dispatching products to and from the repair centre located on site.
Telent’s Tony McTavish reckons that being able to deal with a single supplier for both the forklift truck fleet and the racking and shelving was a “significant” advantage.
“Jungheinrich’s team helped with the design and layout of the racking system and was able to accommodate everything that we wanted.
“What was particularly important was that they didn’t try to dictate what we should be using. A lot of companies and consultants try to shoe-horn their particular products into an application and, in a lot of cases, the products aren’t suitable.
“Jungheinrich was able to supply a range of materials handling products and a storage system that met our needs today and going forward.”
