The ability to meet the wide range of customer requirements that typify the automation and control and electrical distribution industry – from push buttons to panel boards and enclosures – is at the heart of the success enjoyed by Schneider Electric. One of the country’s leading organisations in its field, it is now benefiting from a Link 51 racking and shelving installation at its new, purpose-built Telford premises.
The storage, for items that vary significantly in terms of dimensions and weight as well as a rapid order response capability – the computer-controlled operation supplies the industrial, building, infrastructure and residential markets via a wide range of distributors – is designed met dual purposes.
Link 51 designed and installed a storage system layout at the site that can accommodate the extensive product range that this implies, including industrial control and automation components, busbar trunking, power distribution and medium voltage switchgear.
The facility sees a combination of XL pallet racking as well as cantilever racking and Link 51 high-bay Euro-shelving – both of which provide no less than 15 picking levels.
The pallet racking area comprises 16 aisles each featuring 14 bays capable of accommodating three conventional pallet widths. Importantly, however, they can also house dimensional variations that can occur with an international range of supply sources. Consequently the racking installation has been fitted out with wooden, slatted shelving onto which loads of any anticipated dimension can be placed while, with the same objective in mind, varying beam heights are also available.
The cantilevered racking aisle is located directly alongside the main storage area and has been designed specifically to accommodate busbar trunking of between three and five metres in length. This backs onto the Euro-shelving which can be accessed from the two sides of a further aisle each of which offers 34 bays of up to one metre in width – some further sub-divided vertically to create two or three smaller locations. The resultant choice of dedicated storage units can then be readily accessed by a man-up wire-guided forklift, allowing order picking of smaller components to be conducted to match specific customer requirements.
“It was vital that the storage facility combined maximum capacity with a high level of versatility,” comments Martin Blood, industrial engineer at Schneider Electric’s Telford premises. “The fact that Link 51 was happy to work with us in the design and development of the layout – during which different storage solutions were assessed depending upon the company’s equipment specified – was a key consideration,” he explains. “This has helped us to achieve a facility which we believe matches both current and future customer needs and is in line with the growing demand that we are enjoying.”
