Bendi saves space, time & money
Whilst sales of other types of materials handling equipment have been hit hard during the recession, the Bendi has continued to flourish thanks to the innovative cost saving and space saving benefits that have become synonymous with the worlds leading manufacturer of Articulated forklift trucks.
“Each Bendi product has been created by listening to the marketplace and we now have a range of trucks to suit almost any site, layout or budget, working in the narrowest aisles and the highest racking bays” comments Bend MD Simon Brown. “If you need to reduce storage space in order to increase the amount stored, or reduce the space you store it in, there is not a more cost effective way to handle pallets in racking or stillages in and around production areas”
The innovative design of the Bendi also results in increased operating efficiencies and reduced costs. Designed to operate outdoors, double handling is a thing of the past as the Bendi takes the product direct from the vehicle and straight to the racking or production areas, which means savings in time and further investment in other vehicle types. Compared to a typical VNA application it is not uncommon to reduce your materials handling fleet by 50%, plus expensive and often restrictive guidance is not required.
Customer Recognition
Since it was first introduced to the marketplace in 1983, after its conception one year earlier, the Bendi has gone on to win numerous industry awards, including a Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, but it is recognition from customers that is most rewarding. 2012 has seen Bendi walk away with Innovation Awards from two of the countries leading retail giants – B&Q and Asda. Both awards went to the Mini Bendi, a pedestrian version of the standard Bendi.
As a business, Asda constantly look at ways to separate pedestrians and forklift trucks in order to minimize the risk of accidental collisions. However when segregated it could often lead to usage and productivity becoming inefficient, but as Simon Grass, Asda Back of House Development Manager explains, they no longer need to compromise.
“The Mini Bendi allows us to significantly drive the use of the cube in our back of house areas as it can work in the narrow aisle format and maximise the usable height available, but due to its way of working, that allows us to have pedestrian pick within the same area permitting the stores to drop and fill effectively. This supports the reduction in the building footprint and thus improves the buildings selling efficiency as we can either build a smaller store or increase the selling sqft. It also allows us to lower the height of the building as we can now store as many pallets above ‘pedestrian pick’ in narrow aisles, as we could in the reach truck aisles at height, which is especially welcomed by the local planning authorities in certain areas of the country”
High Expectations
As the Mini Bendi has become the champion of the retail world, so to has the Bendi 420 High Lift when it comes to 3PL’s and “Big Sheds”. Traditionally these applications have been serviced by Reach Trucks that require aisles widths of up to 3m or VNA Trucks that improve on storage capacity but can cost significantly more when you take into consideration the guidance and additional machines/people needed. With the Bendi B420HL there is no compromise – you have the flexibility of the Reach Truck coupled with the space saving features of the VNA but without the cost!
