During 2014, Crown expanded its European operations, developed further advanced technological solutions and gained several prestigious design awards.
Major infrastructure investment
Crown has invested in significant infrastructure improvements designed to ensure the company’s readiness for all the challenges of the European markets.
New European Headquarters – Crown’s European headquarters have been relocated from Munich to nearby Feldkirchen as the culmination of an Europe-wide expansion programme which has seen the opening of new service and distribution centres in Spain (Madrid), Austria (Vienna) and Italy (Milan).
Roding Production Expanded – A new production hall and three-storey office building came on line in Roding, Bavaria, in mid-2014. Crown’s entire European forklift production for the EMEA region and other world markets is now based here.
Parts and Service – A new logistics centre at Pliening, near Munich, has tripled Crown’s capacity to supply parts and service items throughout the EMEA region. Core European markets receive overnight deliveries direct to service engineers’ vehicles or end-user sites.
New Barcelona office – During the last few years, Crown has been steadily developing the company’s share of the Spanish market, opening a retail facility in Valencia in 2011 and a dedicated Spanish head office in Madrid in late 2012. Latest addition to Crown’s coverage in Spain is the new Barcelona facility. Alfonso Valderrama, General Manager of Crown in Spain explained: “The Catalan region accounts for about a quarter of the Spanish market for electric forklifts by volume. Our new facility in Barcelona, combined with our in-depth knowledge of the local market, means we can now respond very precisely to our customers’ on-site needs.”
A year of awards
Crown’s achievements won several prestigious awards during 2014:
GOOD DESIGN™ Award for ES/ET Stackers
In March 2014, Crown’s ES/ET 4000 Series of stacker forklifts received a GOOD DESIGN TM Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. The GOOD DESIGN™ jury honoured the Crown ES 4000/ET 4000 in the industrial category “for high-quality design that reflects Crown’s understanding of the complex needs of forklift operators in daily work, as well as the company’s ability to provide solutions to improve the forklift / operator relationship.” This latest recognition marked the 13th GOOD DESIGN™ Award for Crown Equipment.
QuickPick® Remote – star performer!
Crown’s QuickPick® Remote is one of the first systems of its kind to utilise technology to reduce operator fatigue while improving productivity and safety. Order-picking operatives simply press a button on a wireless transceiver glove to remotely advance the forklift to the next pick location, virtually eliminating the need to return to the operator compartment while picking. Crown field studies show that the technology helps reduce the number of steps on and off the platform taken by operatives by up to 70 per cent, while users have experienced on average 10-25 per cent increased productivity along with much less operator fatigue.
iF Design Award 2014
This prestigious award, bestowed by the iF International Forum Design in the “Transportation Design/Special Vehicles” category, went to QuickPick® Remote for its “superior design quality, workmanship, ergonomics and innovative functionality.”
The iF jury has now recognised Crown product design excellence 35 times since 1969.
“Forklift Oscar” – the 2014 IFOY Awards Warehouse Trucks category
Crown’s second consecutive International Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) Award was received at the CeMAT 2014 trade fair in Hanover for QuickPick® Remote, which prevailed in the “Warehouse Trucks” category during an IFOY test week in real-world conditions.
The jury stated that the highly innovative and well thought-out “magic glove” remote control concept was the key factor as it “constituted a genuine innovation that serves as a benchmark for all future semi-automatic order picking trucks.”
One of the industry’s most prestigious awards, the IFOY Award is made annually by an independent jury of internationally-reputed trade journalists and presented in cooperation with CeMAT. It is sponsored by the VDMA Materials Handling and Logistics Systems Sector Association and comes under the patronage of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy.
German Design Award
The German Design Council has awarded Crown this top international prize in the “Industry, Materials and Health Care” category. The jury said: “QuickPick® Remote is the world’s first semi-automated order picker of its kind and an impressive design achievement … a modern, dynamic-looking design reflects the visionary nature of this patented technology in every detail. An exceptionally high standard!”
InfoLink® now in the Cloud
Crown’s award-winning InfoLink® wireless forklift fleet and operator management system has moved to the Cloud to provide a two-tier platform that aligns with customer needs and challenges and provides multiple paths to forklift fleet optimisation.
InfoLink® won the IFOY Award 2013 in the “Forklift Truck Solutions” category for reducing maintenance and repair costs by 90% for UK office supplies wholesaler, Spicers.
Part of the Crown Insite™ Productivity Suite, InfoLink® provides comprehensive fleet-wide information, including battery usage, impact history, truck utilisation, safety compliance, service needs and more, through a user-friendly interface.
Web: www.crown.com
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