peter.jpgWhen it comes to automated storage and handling on a large scale, the first choice for tailored solutions is Stocklin Ltd, the UK subsidiary of the international Stocklin Group. Positioned at the forefront of the global material handling industry and specialising in the design, installation and support of automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), Stocklin has successfully delivered more than 600 warehouse automation projects worldwide over a 50-year period. The team at Stocklin Ltd. has been established here in the UK for over 20 years, delivering automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), mini-load cranes, conveyor and order-picking systems with fully integrated warehouse management and control.

Stocklin’s reputation as the industry experts draws growing numbers of major customers, each looking for a combination of problem analysis and design, project management and turnkey installation, a comprehensive range of in-house manufactured material handling equipment, UK-wide maintenance and support services, and refurbishment and upgrades for existing systems. As a result, in 2008 Stocklin is enjoying major UK business growth. Warehouse & Logistics News went to Stevenage, Herts to meet Peter Lerigo, Stocklin Ltd’s Sales and Marketing Manager.

Warehouse & Logistics News – Where and when was the original Stocklin business founded?
Walter Stocklin founded the business near Basle in Switzerland in 1934.

WLN – How do you pronounce the name Stocklin?
In Britain we’re happy for it to be pronounced as it appears: Stock-Lin.

WLN – What was the nature of the original business?
Stocklin began producing wheels and trucks, but with the upsurge in demand for materials handling equipment after WWII, it moved to producing a mix of warehouse trucks, pallets and conveying and storage systems, which has evolved over the years to today’s highly sophisticated, integrated solutions. Throughout its history Stocklin has played a leading role in the development, design and manufacture of first class materials handling systems. During this time the company’s innovative contributions have continued to set significant new standards in automated storage technology, backed by an enviable reputation for Swiss quality and reliability.

WLN – Who owns Stocklin now?
Stocklin is a family-owned business, based in Switzerland.

WLN – How big is the Stocklin business now worldwide?
Stocklin has a global turnover of Swiss Francs 145 m (2007 forecast), and operating companies in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France, the UK, Czech Republic, Mexico and Brazil.

WLN – How big is Stocklin in the UK?
It’s difficult to quote meaningful turnover figures, because project values fluctuate – a typical project can easily be worth £12 million. We currently have 11 UK staff with additional support provided from Switzerland as required, handling everything – sales, project management, detailed engineering, control systems, installation and refurbishment.
We’re enjoying major UK growth and looking at increasing staff by 30%, with additional project managers and installation people. The growth is coming from the pharmaceutical and cold store industries: pharmaceuticals is a key market sector, and we’re also strong in the cold store industry with products like our Multi-Deep Storage solutions, which is a market leading product.

WLN – What proportion of your worldwide business is automated storage systems?
The proportion in 2007 was on target to be 108 out of 145m CH F. In the UK, automation represents 100% of our business.

WLN – Where is your world headquarters?
Stocklin Logistik AG, the parent company, is based in Dornach, Switzerland. The factory and product development centre are also based here. One of our key strengths is that we are a manufacturer and able to control our product design.

WLN – We’re talking at your UK offices in Stevenage. What operations take place here?
We provide a full range of services from here, from initial problem solving through to equipment supply and turnkey system implementation. We also provide maintenance, after-sales service and support and systems upgrades.

WLN – What types of products are your automated systems generally used to handle?
Our automated solutions span pallet storage, mini-load storage, conveying and load storage devices, control systems and warehouse management systems. However we don’t just sell machinery: the process of creating automated solutions starts with understanding the customer’s business, their products and throughputs, and where they want to be in the future.

WLN – Can you talk us through your automated storage products?
The breadth and quality of Stocklin’s automated stacker crane range is widely acknowledged. Whether you want fixed aisle, aisle transferring, or curve going cranes, complete with single, double depth or multi-depth load handling devices, we provide the most suitable combination of equipment to provide the optimum ASRS solution. Our standard range accommodates palletised loads of up to 1,500 kg, stored in racking structures up to more than 40 metres high.

WLN – What mini-load cranes do you offer?
Stocklin offers a comprehensive range of mini-load cranes with product specific load handling devices suitable for a variety of bin or carton configurations. These systems maximise storage density, whilst providing high throughput capacity through use of single or multiple load handling devices, with cranes reaching heights of over 22 metres.

WLN – What bin and carton conveying systems do you provide?
Stocklin provides bin and carton conveying systems assembled from a range of tried and tested modular components, thus enabling optimum design flexibility. Using high quality equipment combined with intelligent software guarantees reliable material flow and high performance characteristics.

WLN – What pallet conveying systems do you provide?
Stocklin’s pallet conveying systems are assembled from high quality modular components, including chain and roller conveyors, lifting transfer units, transfer turntables, accumulation conveyors, shuttle cars and elevators. Our range is designed to accommodate a wide variety of different unit loads and pallet types.

WLN – Where does Stocklin rank in the world arena as a supplier of these solutions?
As an integrated supplier of automated systems, we’re in the world’s top five. Specifically talking about 40-metre tall stacker cranes, we’re one of probably only two vendors who can go to this height.

WLN – Why come to Stocklin as a provider of these solutions?
People come to us because we differentiate ourselves through close, long-term partnerships with the customer, and we’re small enough to be flexible while still delivering excellence. We have a small team in the UK and manage projects from here ourselves, but call on 400 colleagues in Switzerland and Stocklin’s other offices in Europe for design, technical and installation support.

WLN – Can you talk us through some examples of industrial sectors where we would find your solutions?
The three main sectors are pharmaceuticals, food and beverage. A leading healthcare manufacturer uses Stocklin on the ‘back end’ of their production. Quinn Glass, near Chester, runs the largest automated warehouse in Europe, which we equipped with cranes and conveyors and WMS. For Coca Cola Enterprises’ East Kilbride bottling plant, again we built a storage solution from scratch, with cranes, conveyors and controls.

WLN – Who are your other major UK customers? Can you talk about the work you’ve done for them? Do you publish case studies?
We’ve carried out a huge automated warehouse project for Computacenter; other large-scale projects include Woolworths’ DC in Swindon, P&G’s DC in Manchester, Western Power in Exeter and RS Components in Nuneaton. We do publish case studies, which are available on request.

WLN – Presumably your automated storage solutions need to be seen up close and walked round for the size and scale to be appreciated, but can you give us a verbal picture of one such project?

Within the logistics sector, a typical project could be a small parts storage operation. A recent example is the new operations centre we built in Hatfield for Computacenter, who supply IT equipment for business. Hatfield has capacity to store over 17,000 pallets and 22,000 containers of computer equipment and accessories there at any one time.
Product comes in on pallets: smaller items are decanted manually into totes then held in stock in the mini-load storage system. This comprises four double-masted Mini-load cranes, and from there product is pulled and picked totally automatically for onward dispatch. Computacenter send out 35,000 orders a day from Hatfield. The system picks direct from the customer’s order. Computacenter also has a pick-to-order process for custom-built computers assembled in-house.
The storage area covers three floors, each 187 metres by 144 metres. This operation replaced several smaller DCs handling the same products manually.

WLN – Hatfield sounds like a huge project. What was Stocklin’s role?
We were the principal materials handling contractor: we supplied pallet cranes, conveyors and mini-load cranes, and managed all the other vendors, including racking and WMS.

WLN – As Sales and Marketing Manager, what’s your role day to day? Are you involved in pitching for major projects?
Although a mechanical engineer by background, my focus is meeting customers, collecting enquiries and developing them through the sales process. I’m the consistent point of client contact. We tend to select customers who fit our culture, with whom we can develop beneficial partnerships over time and provide equipment that in turn, will create a significant business advantage for them.
Our approach is different to many others: we like to sit on the customer’s side of the table. The Stocklin people the client sees remain the same all through the project, from sales to installation and afterwards: it’s part of developing a local, close relationship.

WLN – Who heads up your UK project and engineering side?
Oliver Kirkby is our UK Engineering Manager. He’s been in the business over 20 years, including 10 years with Stocklin.

WLN – What is the possible budget for a project? How long does it take to see a return?
Budgets can vary from £200,000 for one conveyor to £30 million for a complex, integrated system. Clients see efficiency and productivity improvements from Day 1: projects typically pay for themselves within three years.

WLN – Who needs to be involved at the client end for a project to work? Do you provide operator training?
This is a very key question to ensuring the success of major projects. You need a combined project team of client and supplier people: the senior client person must have the authority to sign off the system. We provide full operator training, remaining on site up to 12 months after completion to train and support staff.

WLN – What’s the lifecycle of one of your solutions?
It’s typically 15 years before refurbishment: normally components for the control system become unavailable about this time. All our UK refurbs are of electronic components: mechanical items are replaced as a matter of course.

WLN – How adaptable are your solutions as businesses change?
They’re fairly flexible: Western Power (formerly SWEB) is a good example. Western Power’s product line has changed from electrical white goods to engineering parts, and the system’s been modified to cope. Systems are designed for specific operations, but we have the expertise to update and revise installations.
In the UK we amend and update automated storage systems rather than replace them, due to British management’s financial restraints and cautious approach, but we don’t mind, that’s good for us too!

WLN – What servicing and maintenance is required?
Like any mechanical system, you need daily and weekly operator checks. Depending on the operation, you could have three-month service visits and annual inspections. We need to go through LOLER procedures, because these are lifting devices. Stocklin provides cradle to grave support for customers, covering all aspects of maintenance and inspection.

WLN – We sometimes hear of vendors as diverse as racking and forklift suppliers designing major warehouse projects. Do you think that’s a good thing?
The projects you’re talking about are small scale, by our standards! That said, we’ll happily work with other specialist suppliers where appropriate, to develop customer solutions. An automated storage system has different requirements to a storage facility with manually driven forklifts. For example, one reason many pharmaceutical clients select automated systems is the absolute security they give.

WLN – What industry standards do you work to?
We work to FEM 9.831, FEM 9.851, EN 528 and EN 619, the European design standards for automated systems. We’re members of the Automated Material Handling Systems Association.

WLN – How is the UK market holding up for your solutions? What do you see as the major external factors that are likely to impact on your UK business?

People are still generating orders, and as mentioned we’re expecting 30% growth this year. Automation is all about cost saving, and we deliver. The biggest external factor is availability of land and buildings: builders are typically building 12 metre high sheds, preventing us developing the ideal automated storage solutions, which are higher still.
Fulfillment for on-line shopping inevitably uses people in many areas, a further limiting factor. However, automated warehouses will be increasingly important as labour costs increase, if the UK is to stay competitive. We’re finally catching up in attitude terms with where the Europeans were when they first developed the concept of warehouse automation.

WLN – Where do you see Stocklin’s UK business going from here?
We’re setting ourselves up to win at least one major contract and numerous smaller ones, including refurbishments, every year. To get round the problem of the lack of building land, the UK needs to build higher: you can’t do that with manual storage systems, but you can do so very successfully with Stocklin’s automated solutions.

Stocklin Ltd
Tel: 01438 344 600
www.stocklin.co.uk

2 Comments

  1. Richard C Rabke, Safety Director NY Daily News

    The Daily News has recently purchased Stocklin stacker EFP 2000 Disc 3F AC.
    Questions:
    1. Is a operational training film available?
    2. Are certification trainers available in the USA?
    3. If so, how do we contact them?
    4. We want to certify a Daily News trainer — then train additional
    operators in house.
    5. Need assistance with training the trainer on stacker.
    Please advise.
    Thank you

  2. Jose Ignacio Ramírez Jiménez

    have you some procedures to clean high bay warehose and wath is the frecuency?
    comply you with the FDA regulations?