KASTO automated warehouse customer, high-performance engineering steel stockholder Bohler Uddeholm UK, Oldbury, has won the 2016 SHD Logistics Award for Warehouse Efficiency. It was presented by comedian Mark Watson in front of 600 industry professionals during a dinner at Resorts World Birmingham in mid- September.
Tom Gowans, managing director of Bohler Uddeholm UK said, “We kicked off the demanddriven logistic project in April 2013, knowing that we would need to invest to realise our vision of 50 per cent growth in throughput by 2020.
“Our group financial backing has allowed us to invest, despite the challenging climate in key sectors. We had a choice, invest or stagnate, so we modernised. The new plant came on stream during the first quarter of 2016.”
He went on to explain that value-added activities give Bohler Uddeholm customers access to cutting, machining, bevelling and other services. If required, on-site testing gives customers certification additional to that supplied by the mill.
The automated storage and retrieval facility is 15 metres high, 37 metres long and contains 2,377 travelling cassettes capable of holding steel bars and tubes up to eight metres long, maximum weight per location being 3.5 tonnes.
Key advantages of the installation are a reduction of forklift trucks from 15 to six, an 80 per cent saving in floor area compared with using cantilever racking, and warehouse operator costs down by 15 per cent, with staff deployed elsewhere on site.
The warehouse is also benefitting customers, as the stockholder can now ensure same-day picking and despatch for all orders received before noon.
Bohler-Uddeholm is part of the Special Steel Division of voestalpine Stahl AG, which owns mills in Austria, Germany, Sweden and Brazil producing cold and hot work steels, mould and tool steels, high speed steels and various alloys including nickel-based varieties.
KASTO LTD
Ernst Wagner, Managing Director
Tel: 01908 571590
Email: sales@uk.kasto.com
BOHLER UDDEHOLM UK LTD
Tel: 0121 552 1535
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