Heartbeat Manufacturing transforms warehouse efficiency with Bendi forklifts
September 25th 2007 Growing pressures on warehouse space often see companies turn to Translift Bendi for its articulated forklifts to provide the solution, and Redditch-based Heartbeat Manufacturing is a good example.
Heartbeat’s problem was simple but the various possible solutions exposed the need for careful choice. Its old bulk steel store used counterbalanced forklifts that wasted valuable storage space. Such trucks typically need 3.6m wide aisles compared with only 1.6m for the articulating Bendi - even reach trucks need 2.6m. The Bendi, therefore, can allow operators to store up to 50% and 33% more pallet loads than counterbalance and reach trucks respectively.
Advised by a racking company, Heartbeat gutted its old steel bulk store and installed very narrow aisle (VNA) racking with the Bendi in mind. It could, however, have chosen a dedicated, VNA truck but this would have cost far more, been much slower and, like reach trucks, would have lost the advantage of versatility needed for outdoor work.
The Bendi chosen and installed last year is the B318, which works comfortably in Heartbeats 1.9m wide aisles – the truck is actually designed to work in aisles of 1.6m.
The Bendi, however, is not all about saving space inside warehouses. It can also do the same outside in yards when unloading lorries as well as eliminate double handling. “You can unload a lorry in a much tighter space and transfer the load straight into the racking,” explains warehouse manager Bob Cave, “whereas if you use a counterbalance truck and put loads down in the warehouse for the Bendi to take over you could lose a few man hours a day.”
Bob Cave also acknowledges the inherent safety advantages the Bendi has over other truck types. Compared with a counterbalance truck, “The Bendi is quite sedate,” says Bob, (though its productivity is often much higher) which cuts out any latent tendencies to treat it like a racing car. “You also have much better vision when interfacing with racking beams and there is no rear end swing.” Standard safety features include flashing light, reversing bleeper, hill start, four-post overhead guard and acceleration skid control, all of which have been fitted to the Bendi since 1995.
Truck reliability is also crucial for many operators, especially when, like Heartbeat, they are offering a JIT delivery service nationwide. Here, the over-engineered Bendi means operators gain greater truck longevity and less downtime. And unlike dedicated VNA trucks the Bendi is easily transferable to other sites when storage contracts change.
Translift Bendi provided on-site driver training for three drivers who now agree that they would rather drive a Bendi than a counterbalance truck. “I think it is a very good truck, and we cannot fault Translift’s after sales service,” concludes Cave.
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