Aisle-Master is the Vital Part for Blue Print

Blue Print is the leading European brand of quality replacement parts for Japanese, Korean and American vehicles. Impressive year on year growth has recently made the best possible use of warehouse space a priority. This has been addressed by bringing in four Aisle-Master articulated forklifts for narrow aisle operation at the company's UK distribution centre in Kent.

The first two trucks were assigned for a warehouse dedicated to the storage of brake discs, radiators and coil springs - 17,500 pieces in all when at full capacity - and they stack the varying sized pallets to a height of 7.5m. Blue Print inherited the narrow aisle system in this section from the former owners but chose Aisle-Masters over the previous articulated trucks, as Group Distribution and Logistics Director Derek Edwards explains: “The overall build of the Aisle-Masters, particularly the double bearing at the point of articulation, is much tougher than other brands, making them robust enough to withstand the continuous lifting of heavy loads into the racking.”

Part of an additional warehouse for storing filters was racked out for two further Aisle-Masters which were ordered in the winter of 2010, and the resulting increase in pallet density got rid of the need for outside storage and saved the considerable costs of acquiring further warehousing facilities. Derek Edwards: “We changed from a very wide aisle system with reach trucks to about as narrow as you can get, with 2.1m aisle-widths. By stacking up to 9m we have used all our vertical space to achieve an impressive capacity in an area of just 10,500 ft².”