Warehouse planning pays off with space saved

The free service was carried out by Combilift’s design engineers, who provided a sample layout of racking to illustrate optimum use of the available space in the 22,000 sq m storage area. 

ThyssenKrupp Energostal is one of Poland’s largest trading companies, and since 2001 it has belonged to the German ThyssenKrupp Materials International GmbH. Due to expanding sales its site near Warsaw has required a transformation.

The Combilift designers also advised introducing a guided aisle system, which was not possible when using the previous trucks. Aisle widths between racking for 6m long stillages of tubes and pipes have now been pared down to little more than the width of the truck itself, enabling extra bays to be incorporated. The combination of guide rollers on the trucks and the guide rails also makes it much easier and quicker for drivers to enter and exit the aisles and reduces the risk of product damage. 

“Although we have a relatively large warehouse, the volume of goods we handle means that we need to exploit every inch of space,” says director Tomasz Groszyk. “Thanks to Combilift’s products and the expertise of its design engineers we can now carry a maximum of stock and ensure a quick turnaround for our customers.”

The company acquired a fleet of seven Combilift 4-way forklifts.

Rolled and stainless steel and steel tubes and pipes are the main materials handled at the site, but the facility also deals with a certain amount of non ferrous loads such as polycarbonate sheet. Better stock density and improved handling procedures all round were the main aims of the operations department when it looked into alternative forklifts to replace the electric 4-way trucks that made up the majority of the previous fleet.

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The Combilift’s versatility, indoor and outdoor capability and a range of power options proved to be the ideal combination. An initial C4500 Combilift was put into action and the success of this led to orders for a further six C3000 Combilift models with a 3t capacity. The trucks offload incoming deliveries from ThyssenKrupp’s own factories as well as from other suppliers, take them from the outside loading bays to the warehouse and pick stock when customer deliveries are collated before reloading for despatch.

The LPG powered Combilifts with 7.5m duplex masts and side shift cope easily with the requirements of handling loads of diverse weights and dimensions such as long packs of tubes weighing 2 tonnes or 4m x 1.5m pallets of polycarbonate. Their manoeuvrability also enables them to work close up to machines where material is cut to size for individual customer requirements.

Since its establishment Combilift has been more than a forklift supplier and sees itself as a provider of warehouse solutions, with the layout service has been a key element of this.

Combilift MD Martin McVicar says: “Optimising the layout of storage areas can result in much more efficient operations: in some situations we have found for example that personnel picking and handling goods only spend about 20% of their daily hours on this activity whilst more than 50% of their time is spent driving around the warehouse to locate stock.”

A crucial element of the warehouse planning process is data. As well as detailed information on the size of loads handled – length, width, weight, Combilift uses the dimensions of the area that is to be used for storage, the upper and lower roof / eave height, the location of entrance and exit points and loading bays, plus information on any outside areas that may also be used. Combilift then uses design software and 3D simulations to create layout diagrams which illustrate the best possible storage density and the best type of Combilift trucks for the products handled.

Combilift has close working relationships with a number of racking suppliers and, due to its long experience can advise as to the best type of racking for any particular purpose such as cantilever racking for long loads of timber, high bay narrow aisle racking for pallets etc.

McVicar continues: “Our warehouse design and logistic audit service is free of charge and comes with no obligation to purchase our trucks. However, in practice we have found that once potential customers have gone down the route of looking to us for advice they are usually so impressed with the outcome that they buy our products.”