Welcome to the 1 October issue of Warehouse & Logistics News. To help you gird your loins for the increasing economic pressures on UK business over the coming months, we have features on conveying, sortation, automated materials handling equipment and solutions, and also on warehouse management systems, including the latest WMS applications. As the intro to our Conveyors feature observes, conveyors have come a long way thanks to automatic ID and cheap IT, offering a levels of functionality unimaginable not long ago. Demand for smart conveyors these days is driven by many factors, particularly pressure from customers to deliver the goods faster. Shorter times to market necessitate fewer pipeline stocks, less handling equipment and storage space, and lower stock wastage, particularly on time-sensitive items.
In many businesses conventional storage has given way to transit storage, where stored goods pass through distribution centres in a single day. Loading bays are becoming much more dynamic, harnessing one-shot vehicle loading systems, supplied either by fast sortation conveyors or transfer cars.
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Our other feature, on WMS, mentions how warehouse management systems can typically improve warehouse productivity by 30%, but in large complex operations, best results require computerised stock systems, harnessed to other IT functions like stock/demand forecasting, simulation modeling and EPOS.
Whatever else happens, relaxation is essential to coping with stress. By way of light relief, in this issue we have episode 32 of our exclusive history of the forklift truck by Jim Brindley, Director of the National Fork Truck Heritage Centre. The UK materials handling equipment market is now dominated by overseas-owned companies, but 50 years ago, at the October 1959 Paris International Handling Exhibition, British manufacturers showed equipment in most of the sections.
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One of the prominent materials handling machinery exhibitors back then was Lansing Bagnall, later part of Linde. As our FLT history’s latest episode recalls, the Lansing model FOER 3 featured in the 1959 comedy classic film satire `I’m Alright Jack,’ starring Peter Sellers, Ian Carmichael and Terry Thomas. In this brilliant comedy set in a missiles factory, of all places, the truck’s efficiency and speed meant it was used as a tool both by a corrupt management and a stubborn union. The inevitable outcome was a workers’ strike, which eventually led to a national strike and the country’s near economic collapse. Then as now, the ability to find something to laugh about in the face of impending disaster is clearly an enduring British trait!
Have a cheerful month, and happy reading.
Charles Smith
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