Supporting click and collect

To maximise the storage capacity and handling efficiency of the new site, the company with the help of Flexi Warehouse Systems planned their new racking scheme around VNA technology.

Storage racking needed to be some 6.5 metres high to fully utilise the new building with aisle widths set at 1.9 metres with end of aisle transfer aisle of 3 metres, the Flexi trucks are able to handle ISO and EURO or appliances individually. In order to increase throughput and reduce the average travel distance between picks, a central transfer aisle only 2.7 metres wide with bridge bay storage above was created.

Opting for this Flexi based narrow aisle storage solution has enabled more than 3,000 pallet storage locations to be achieved within the new building’s footprint as well as the other important work zones required, goods receiving, picking and packing, dispatch and administration offices.

The Flexi AC trucks in the operation are the latest generation high throughput model. Thanks to their ability to operate both inside the warehouse and outside in the yard, the Flexis are used by The Gas Superstore to unload incoming trailers and deliver stock to the storage cube.

When it comes to outgoing orders, the Flexis pick items from the racking and transfer them directly to The Gas Superstore’s own fleet of delivery vans for shipment and installation into individual clients’ homes across the East Midlands and increasingly nationwide.

The Gas Superstore’s director Paul Fenn said: "We wanted the flexibility of handling pallets or individual appliances in a very narrow aisle that Flexi articulated trucks offer when compared to traditional trucks.”