Day: 12 June 2020

Rhenus Air & Ocean has opened a new hub at Liège Airport, as part of a strategic move that sees the company position itself perfectly within the ‘golden triangle’ between Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris. The new hub, which offers a portfolio of freight forwarding solutions, expands the company’s global air freight network.

Handling more than 900,000 tonnes of transported goods every year, Liège Airport (LGG) is the fastest-growing cargo airport in Europe. A multitude of large airfreight and charter lines, such as Qatar Airways and AirBridgeCargo, use LGG as a European gateway to the rest of the world.

Frank Roderkerk, CEO of Rhenus Air & Ocean Northern Europe, comments: “In addition to attractive flight schedules, LGG has excellent multimodal connections. This will enable us to offer customers more air and rail freight products, as well as sea freight products in the future. Several trains a week connect Liège with China along the land bridge, including Yiwu and Zhengzhou.”

Future plans for the new Rhenus Air & Ocean Liège hub will see goods transported via key air, ocean and rail routes, while customs clearance and fiscal representation capabilities will also be available. In addition to its new hub, Rhenus offers the storage of goods within its Belgium network in the ports of Genk, Antwerp and Brussels and at Brucargo.

Manhattan has been handed a double boost by Gartner, having been named as Leader in the Magic Quadrant for both its TMS and WMS solutions.

Manhattan argues it is uniquely positioned to serve the global needs of large, highly sophisticated shippers and their more streamlined medium-sized counterparts. For example, PLUS Retail, a supermarket chain with 263 stores across the Netherlands, recently selected Manhattan TMS to support its Optimised Delivery Network strategy. “Operating Manhattan’s TMS in the cloud offered us the flex-up capability, coupled with complete end-to-end support for all transportation functions across our entire logistics network and third-party fleets,” commented Roelof Zwaagstra, buyer not for resale at PLUS Retail.

Manhattan TMS is part of the Manhattan Active Supply Chain Solution suite, which allows enterprises to optimise large and complex operations, adapt to market and demand changes, and iterate and innovate with technology that is always current and seamlessly interconnected, and that runs anywhere.

Download a complimentary copy of the Gartner report here.

Manhattan’s WMS was named a Leader in Gartner’s May 2020 Magic Quadrant for Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) for the 12th time in a row. The report evaluated 15 vendors this year, and Manhattan once again placed highest in its ability to execute and furthest right on completeness of vision.

“We’re honoured to be recognised by Gartner. More than anything else, we think it represents the collaborative relationships we have with our customers, some of the most innovative and progressive supply chain practitioners across many industries,” said Brian Kinsella, senior vice president of Product Management for Manhattan Associates. “We’ve put a strong emphasis on co-innovation throughout our thirty-year history, resulting in a feature rich and highly configurable WMS with deployments across the globe.”

Part of the Manhattan Active Supply Chain suite of solutions, Manhattan Warehouse Management is designed to help distribution centres thrive in the omnichannel marketplace. The solution maximises operational efficiencies and optimizes fulfilment centre performance.

Nottingham-based security barrier manufacturer, Hardstaff Barriers expanded its fleet last year with two new Hyundai 80D-9 diesel, 8,000 kg, counterbalance forklifts, in a deal with Hyundai Material Handling distributor, Acclaim Handling.

Hardstaff Barriers has recently delivered and installed hostile vehicle mitigation protection to the NHS Nightingale COVID-19 support Hospital, in Harrogate, through its government framework. One of the company’s Hyundai forklift trucks played a crucial role in unloading the kit from the three delivery HGV’s and placing in situ ready for installation.

The NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber is a 500-bed COVID-19 support hospital, which was converted from Harrogate’s Convention Centre, in under three weeks. The hospital was officially opened by 100-year-old war veteran, Captain Tom Moore on April 20th, in a virtual ceremony.

As part of the conversion from convention centre to hospital, a supporting infrastructure was built within the curtilage of the convention centre. Due to its proximity to the main road a solution was required to protect the new installations from errant or hostile vehicles. Hardstaff Barriers were able to provide a gated linear solution to protect the infrastructure, following a site survey, with a live feed to a designer who was able to share designs with the client in minutes.

The site visit and design took place on 7 th April and the installation took place on 9 th April and was completed in less than three hours, by a team of five, working within the social distance guidelines. Hardstaff installed two HVM Swing Arm Gates and 30 metres of concrete Quick Moveable Barrier (QMB).

Wes Baker, Fleet and Operational Support Manager, Hardstaff Barriers commented, “The Hyundai Material Handling fork truck assisted with the loading and unloading of the HGVs’. Since we purchased the two Hyundai’s, as part of our fleet expansion, the trucks have been put through their paces on some high-level HVM security projects. The machines have proved to be both robust and reliable.

The Hyundai was chosen after trials with it and its competitors and was found to be the best-matched machine for the Hardstaff operation. The machine is short for an 8t machine making it more manoeuvrable in tight spaces which is something we encounter often.”

Safety is of paramount importance at Hardstaff and the company specified a raft of additional safety features for the new forklift trucks which included, additional high-level mast lights and additional low-level lights. A reversing safety camera, overhead high voltage cable detectors, Chapter 8 chevrons and additional reflective markings.

Wes continued, “Acclaim were very helpful in assisting with our additional safety feature requirements, these included Red Light Pedestrian Exclusion Zone lighting, and additional lighting for operators, also external ‘seatbelt connected’ and ‘handbrake on’ warning lights were fitted to our specification before delivery.

The new machines have been well received and the opinion of the forklift drivers is that the Hyundai is a very good piece of equipment.”