Mibelle cleans up
Five Aisle-Master articulated trucks, soon to be followed by a sixth, are in operation at the Mibelle Group’s UK manufacturing and distribution centre in Bradford. Supplying major retailers and the cosmetics industry, the Group is one of the top three manufacturers of personal care products in Europe.
The 1.5t capacity electric powered 15E Aisle-Masters transport incoming raw materials such as palletised drums of chemicals to the storage facilities and manufacturing areas and also pick finished goods. The chassis width of just over 1m enables easy operation in the pre-existing narrow aisle 6m high racking and has enabled loading bay widths to be reduced to add extra rows of stock.
Warehouse Manager Gareth Barnes: ”We wanted to keep the articulated system but decided to look elsewhere when renewing our fleet due to the many problems encountered over the years with our previous brand. Our current combination of Aisle-Master quality and reliability and local expertise from materials handling consultants Forkway Group has significantly improved operations.”
One feature that has been of particular benefit is the integral hydraulic fork positioner as Gareth explains: “Due to the widely varying sizes of pallets we handle this has been a great time saver. The drivers use it virtually all the time and no longer need to get on and off the trucks to manually adjust the forks, which is also better from a health and safety point of view.”
“Downtime and problems with spare parts used to be a daily occurrence but thankfully this is history,” says Gareth. “We can now rely on this dependable fleet to service our 5,000 pallet spaces across both long shifts.”
