Pilkington Automotive has announced the appointment of Briggs Equipment, the UK’s national Cat® Lift Truck distributor, to manage its materials handling operations. Briggs’ innovative approach to damage prevention, coupled with battery management solutions, secured the £1.2 million 5-year contract.
Briggs’ lifetime cost approach will see Pilkington Automotive’s European Distribution Centre reduce its costs by nearly £100,000 across its warehousing operations. The move helps Pilkington Automotive to counter the effects of the current economic recession whilst maintaining high levels of productivity.
Richard Leese, site manager at Pilkington Automotive in Redditch said, “We were really impressed by the relationship-based approach and the time Briggs invested in ensuring they put together a solution that was truly fit for purpose. They have really exceeded our expectations by reducing damage and energy costs and adding value through improved account management.”
Briggs supplied the glass manufacturer with a 29-strong warehouse fleet consisting of Cat reach trucks, electric 3 and 4-wheel counterbalance trucks and power pallets, as well as Dambach man-up VNA equipment. Briggs’ battery handling and management solution encompasses the entire fleet and includes a state of the art battery racking system and intelligent chargers providing monthly battery performance reports and inclusion of battery maintenance in the standard contract.
Briggs estimates that, over the lifetime of the batteries, this solution will realise cost savings of £93,000 compared to conventional battery systems. In addition, the energy savings will help Pilkington meet its environmental targets by reducing the number of electrical units by nearly 300,000 per year.
Pilkington Automotive, part of the NSG Group of Japan, is a global manufacturer and supplier of flat glass for the automotive industry, also wanted to increase its fleet productivity. So Briggs has fitted a truck management system to each vehicle and made custom modifications to the fleet to ensure each truck is built to meet the specific requirements of each department, as well as being flexible enough to adapt to other departments as necessary.
The service and maintenance contract that Briggs has put in place includes a stringent service level agreement which stipulates 90% first fix and fleet uptime rates as well as 3 hour response from local engineers.
Les Knight, account manager at Briggs Equipment added, “To fully understand Pilkington Automotive’s cost reduction and environmental priorities, we undertook a series of detailed surveys over a 12 month period, looking at battery management and handling as well as machine operation and utilisation. The final solution has helped to secure significant annual cost savings for Pilkington Automotive, whilst maintaining high levels of productivity.”
Briggs Equipment UK Ltd is a leading materials handling service provider and sole UK distributor of Cat Lift Trucks®. Proving a wide range of equipment for a broad customer base, Briggs provides innovative, tailored and cost effective solutions on a nationwide basis.
Briggs Equipment
Sally Baker, Marketing Manager
Tel: 01543 437923
www.briggsequipment.co.uk
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