Nifty benefits from narrow aisle solution

Niftylift is one of the largest manufacturers of cherry pickers, boom lifts, access and work platforms in Europe. To keep pace with demand, the company needed to develop the warehouse facility at its Milton Keynes manufacturing facility, which provides inbound sequencing and acts as a buffer store for spare parts which Niftylift supplies to customers and distributors worldwide. With 6,000 lines, Niftylift had to create more storage space within the existing site, as production manager Steve Beckwith explains: "We wanted to get more out of our current assets and didn't want to invest in a new building if we could avoid it. So, we looked at storage solutions that would enable us to increase the storage density at our current facility and allow us to increase capacity without incurring the cost that a move to bigger premises would involve." Prior to the revamp, Niftylift used reach trucks in the warehouse to stack Euro pallets 1.2m deep in 2.8m wide aisles. Replacing these with new Flexi VNA articulated forklifts has allowed the aisles to be reduced to 1.8m, creating space for extra runs of racking and giving more pallet spaces. The Flexi VNA is a true four-wheel articulated truck designed to require minimal manoeuvring in the aisles. In a 1.6m wide aisle, for example, the Flexi VNA needs only one articulation to put away a standard ISO (Chep) pallet. Flexi Narrow Aisle says some three-wheel articulated trucks with 'pivot' steering technology require up to four movements to achieve the same result. Niftylift's truck drivers all attended a short on-site conversion training session to ensure that they were familiar and comfortable with the articulated truck's operating technique. Beckwith says the drivers are already able to move more pallets per hour than the old reach trucks. "The Flexi VNA has allowed us to reduce aisle widths to maximise storage capacity while maintaining a safe and productive operation that allows fast and efficient pallet put away and retrieval cycles," he says. John Maguire of Flexi Narrow Aisle adds: "There are obvious synergies between Niftylift and Flexi Narow Aisle – both are British-owned manufacturing companies that take pride in the design and build quality of their products, so we are delighted to have been able to work with them to improve the operational efficiency of their modern warehouse facility."