Warehouse capacity and efficiency increased

With a 10,000 square metre site to house its production and storage facilities, a laboratory and testing facility, Elco Burners in Germany has been well placed to cope with its demands as a manufacturer of industrial burners throughout its near 90-year history.

However, with business growing steadily in China and Russia, existing storage space in the raw materials and finished parts warehouses became insufficient.

With little desire to rent additional external storage space, Elco Burners looked to introduce a new storage concept at its existing premises in Hechingen.

To smooth the process, Elco Business enlisted the help of Yale SLT Foerdertechnik GmbH in Heidenau.

With a new high-bay rack system in place, the materials handling equipment requirements changed drastically. Safe and stable storage and retrieval at a height of 7.5 metres in the high-bay racking was no longer possible with a truck.

Yale SLT Foerdertechnik recommended a Yale reach truck from the MR range with a load capacity of 1.6 tons and a chassis width of 1,345mm which ensures a stable base even when storing goods at lifting heights of 8.5 metres.

The Yale reach truck ensures safe and efficient storage and retrieval and is optionally equipped with a package of convenience features. It also includes a joystick operation for simple and precise control of all lifting functions, as well as a premium colour display allowing the driver to clearly view all the driving parameters, plus height measurement and laser positioning assistance with camera.

Igor Dodik, warehouse sales manager representing Yale in Neu lsenburg, said: “A red laser beam shows the driver on the rack the height and position of the fork arms. This allows much more efficient storage and retrieval of pallets and reduces the risk of damage to the rack or the load.”

Tom Jaeger, who manages Elco Burner production and quality assurance, added: “Our drivers love the outstanding ergonomics of the Yale reach truck. After introductory training by Yale SLT Fordertechnik, they all got used to the new vehicle very quickly.”

The Yale dealer’s recommendations included Elco Burner investing in new high-bay racking in its raw materials warehouse, in addition to a semi-automated hardware warehouse.

An additional challenge at Elco Burners was that the stored goods are very different sizes. Even larger finished parts require interim storage until the parts arrive for further processing.

Helmut Fichtner, responsible for consulting and sales at Yale SLT Foerdertechnik, explained: “The advantage of high-bay racking is the fact that it makes the best use of the warehouse height for storage space, without having to expand widthways.

“With the new high-bay racking, the number of pallet positions has more than doubled from 192 to 480 pallet spaces.”

The new racks have ensured the storage space is tripled, enabling 150 burners to be housed.