Rico Logistics, the high quality industrial and parts fulfilment group, has maximized the storage capacity of its new warehouse facility on the outskirts of Birmingham by reconfiguring the internal lay-out of the site around a high-bay narrow aisle racking system served by a fleet of Flexi articulated lift trucks with a 14 metre lift height supplied by Narrow Aisle Ltd.

Rico leased the building at Minworth in Summer 2019 to support their rapidly expanding business and, following a consultation with Narrow Aisle’s Warehouse Systems Division, a storage solution that allowed all of the available space offered by the facility to be utilized was designed and implemented.

By introducing racking that made use of the full height of the building, Rico has been able to optimize pallet locations and pick faces and ensure that the site delivers the most cost-efficient storage cube.

The project was undertaken in two phases and, now complete, provides some 11,000 pallet locations. At its highest point, which is in the apex of the building’s roof structure, the new racking scheme delivers a 14 metre high top rack beam.

A fleet of 5 Flexi articulated VNA trucks – all of which are the latest Flexi ACiON models from Narrow Aisle – is in operation within Rico’s new store.

Flexi ACiON trucks feature digital electric motor technology that allows all independent drive, hydraulic and power-steering motors functions to be controlled digitally to ensure the most productive and energy-efficient performance throughout the working day.

“The collaborative robotic – or ‘cobotic’ – control systems in the heart of the Flexi ACiON 1500 model deliver a more integrated performance, and result in greater reliability and higher productivity combined with significantly reduced operating and maintenance costs,” says Narrow Aisle Ltd’s MD, John Maguire.

“The Flexi ACiON’s advanced suite of ‘cobotic’ technology is, in effect, connected to the truck’s nervous system and it allows features such as the operator’s vision camera, height selection system and aisle sensing technology, to be integrated without the need for hard-wired relays, contactors and so on.”

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