ukwa 2 cover - United Kingdom Warehousing Association

28 Member’s Case Study
Narrower aisles means faster throughputs and greater space
efficiency at Bowker Group’s three warehouse sites
Narrow view
UKWA member company Bowker
Group was founded in 1919 and
has grown into one of the largest
independent third party logistics (3PL) service
operators in the North of England.
Today, Bowker provides a range of contract
distribution and dedicated and shared user
warehousing services from three strategically
located facilities at Preston, Leyland and Hull.
The company has a diverse client base
and stores and distributes anything from
hazardous chemicals to food stuffs.
After taking the decision to re-evaluate
materials handling operations across all three
sites, the company has introduced a fleet of
12 Flexi articulated forklift trucks from Narrow
Aisle. Five Flexis are in service at both the
Leyland and Preston facilities, with a further
two trucks working at the Hull site.
Throughout the business Bowker has
standardised on narrow aisle widths with
some block stacking capacity at each of its
facilities. Although the Flexis can operate in
aisles as narrow 1.8metres wide, Bowker
chose to set the aisle widths at 2.0 metres
because it was felt that the extra space
would allow the most efficient speed of
throughput.
“A significant part of our business is
about achieving a quick turnaround,”
explains warehouse manager, Stuart
Greenwood. “Quite simply, we felt that by
narrowing the aisleways too much we would
restrict the speed at which the forklifts can
travel between picking locations.
Stuart Greenwood continues: “While I
know that, when using an articulated forklift
truck it is technically feasible to pick up and
turn pallets in aisles as narrow as 1.8
metres, in applications where high
throughputs need to be achieved and faster
travel speeds are required, the speed at
which the truck can be safely operated will
be reduced if there is insufficient clearance
in the aisleway.”
2.0 metres was agreed to be the optimum
aisle width for Bowker following a
period of close consultation between key
personnel from the company and the warehouse
planning team at Narrow Aisle Flexi,
who offer a free warehouse design and layout
service to ensure the success of any
space saving project.
Interestingly, while articulated forklift
suppliers have stressed the benefits of keeping
aisle widths to a minimum for many
years John Maguire, sales and marketing
director at Narrow Aisle, believes that some
companies are in danger of adversely
affecting the efficiency and productivity of
their forklift fleet by attempting to squeeze
too many racking runs into any given storage
cube.
“At fast-moving operations like Bowker
where speed of pallet put-away and pick is
essential, the speed at which a truck can
safely operate in the aisleways is more
important than the need to narrow the
aisleways,” he says.
John Maguire continues: “I think that this
is sometimes forgotten at the warehouse
planning stage. For example, I recently visited
a site where the wide chassis articulated
trucks specified in the operation have no
choice but to travel at less than half of their
top speed within the aisles because clearance
each side was too small so there is very little
margin for error on either side of the truck.
This is clearly counter productive to any benefits
the user may have derived by being able
to add extra pallet positions by cutting the
aisle dimensions.”
By going to 2.0 metre wide aisles, the
articulated truck option was still far more
space efficient for Bowker than using
reach trucks. Furthermore, the Flexis
are easier to drive and faster in operation
than reach trucks and remove
the need for double handling inside and
outside the store.
At Bowker’s Leyland facility incoming
vehicles arrive at a covered goods in area
and Flexis are used to unload incoming
trailers and deliver pallets directly to the
racking. At Hull and Preston a combination
of Flexis and counterbalanced machines
are used for unloading.
Bowker’s Flexi fleet is comprised of G4
models from the Narrow Aisle range. The
Flexi G4’s unique twin load wheel drive
offers safe traction in all conditions especially
when laden.
www.flexi.co.uk
www.bowker group.co.uk
February 2010
www.ukwa.org.uk