12 solid hours of operation every day, 230 days per year, up to 5 tonnes per cycle and incredibly important for production: Baustoffwerke Havelland is a producer of building materials and, since March 2017, dependent on the Yale® GDP120DC Heavy Duty Forklift Truck supplied by Yale dealership MF Gabelstapler Service GmbH. Baustoffwerke Havelland is located north-west of Berlin where it produces bricks for the building industry. This GDP120DC is customised for their requirements, including a hydraulic brick clamp.

The company supplies a modular kit for the building industry: The large format products delivered from the Unika KS factory are top sellers in the Baustoffwerke Havelland range. Architects send CAD data directly to the sand-lime brick manufacturer, who then produces the precision “plane-elements” ready to be assembled at the building site. Although this makes things much easier for the builder, it is a tough challenge for the producer: the plane-elements come in various sizes and widths of up to one metre. Because they are sold by the piece, palletising makes no sense: a forklift truck is required at the end of the plane-element production line. The truck grabs up to 20 elements with a total weight of up to 5 tonnes and transports the package to the company’s outdoor storage area. When it’s time for delivery to the site, the forklift picks up the specified items and places them on a lorry – round the clock, 230 days a year.

This kind of transport logistics cannot afford breakdowns. “If the forklift truck breaks down, production stops,” says Olaf Lilie, technical manager at Baustoffwerke Havelland. This system worked well for many years, but in 2016 the company decided to introduce a back-up factor into its warehousing logistics by buying a second heavy duty forklift truck, especially since the previous model had already been in service for several years. In addition to technical details, the building materials producer also kept a careful eye on total cost. “It’s no help if the initial investment costs are low but we have high operating costs, long stand-still periods or high maintenance costs,” Olaf Lilie explains. The crucial thing here is long-term economics, which also includes the matter of service response time. Mr Lilie, “The bottom line is we need robust stability.” Which means a heavy-duty 12-tonne forklift, because the building materials company didn’t want to chance a smaller truck to handle the frequently heavy loads and risk longer breakdown periods. The new truck had to be heavy duty and reliable and be able to move quickly around the grounds.

Baustoffwerke Havelland made several enquiries, received many tenders but quickly selected the Yale unit. MF Gabelstapler offered a model that was comparable with the existing pincer stacker with which they had gathered good experience over more than five years. Lilie, “We chose that which we know and like. We did not want any experiments.” They had faith in the Yale product based on past experience. On top of this, the brick experts in the German state of Brandenburg opened a new chapter of cooperation with MF Gabelstapler Service, a Yale dealer, and appreciate the services provided from the beginning. “All meetings and talks have always been constructive,” Olaf Lilie reports. MF Gabelstapler quickly understood the needs of Baustoffwerke Havelland and made pertinent suggestions. “They know what they are talking about. We soon agreed with MF Gabelstapler about detailed specifications. There are no complaints about service quality.”

Buying a standard forklift truck for this heavy duty work was not a suitable option for Baustoffwerke Havelland. The key feature of the GDP120DC at Havelland is the hydraulic brick clamp supplied by Steinweg Klammersysteme.

The clamp is an extended version with an overall width of 230 centimetres, matching the size of the large format plane-elements, the grabs have a special coating so that they can handle unpacked and plastic-wrapped stones at the same time. An LED lamp on the grab eases the job when lighting is poor – an extra feature suggested by the truck drivers themselves.

] It was a priority at Baustoffwerke Havelland to include staff suggestions when choosing this vital piece of equipment. Important aspects raised included the need to improve operator comfort and wellbeing at work: the vehicle has a seat with air suspension, an extended backrest, a lumbar support and is heated. The fully glazed cabin is fitted with a recirculating air system plus air conditioning, a reading lamp and a document shelf, all designed to ease the working environment as well as a radio for entertainment.

“It was important for us that staff have a good, protected place of work,” Olaf Lilie says. Employees at Baustoffwerke Havelland appreciate that fact. “That’s my favourite piece of machinery,” is something Olaf Lilie often hears from his staff; all the drivers feel “at home” in the new Yale forklift. And as far as company management is concerned, the expectations in the new unit “were fully and completely satisfied”, says the technical manager. The forklift has been in service at Baustoffwerke Havelland since March 2017: its availability and its performance are just right, according to Olaf Lilie. Communications with the dealer are also efficient and straight-forward. MF Gabelstapler has maintained after sales contact with Baustoffwerke Havelland and makes all efforts to satisfy the company’s forklift truck requirements. Mr Lilie, “We feel that we are in good hands.”

For further information on the range of materials handling equipment from Yale visit www.yale.com. For more information on MF Gabelstapler Service GmbH visit www.mfgabelstapler.de. To find out more about Baustoffwerke Havelland visit www.baustoffwerkehavelland. de.

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