Nominated for IFOY Award 2013 in the Forklift Truck Solutions Category: Crown

• Fleet management system slashes costs: Crown revolutionises material handling technology for UK stationery wholesaler Spicers

Munich, February 18, 2013.  90 percent lower maintenance and damage costs and a smaller - but far more efficient - truck fleet: this is the highly successful outcome of the project implemented by MHE specialist Crown at the Spicers company in the UK. Offering over 17,000 items from its product portfolio, including leading stationery brand 5Star™, and operating from eight strategically located distribution centres, Spicers is one of the UK’s largest wholesale providers of stationery and office supplies.

The use of a completely new MHE fleet and Crown's "InfoLink" fleet management system enabled the company to reduce its maintenance and damage billing by a massive 90 percent at the end of 2012.
Before the successful project was realised, Spicers still operated a high number of older trucks with visible damage and requiring high-level maintenance. To date, it has been possible to reduce the fleet by more than 40 percent based on a five-year hire contract.

Fewer trucks – improved deployment planning
"When we initially looked at the Spicers’ fleet, in many cases they had more than one truck on site to ensure availability when they had a breakdown", explains Steve Rumbelow, National Account Manager at Crown. Consequently, it was decided not only to reduce the number of trucks but also to supply key trucks with two batteries, ensuring availability across double shifts. At the same time, all trucks were fitted with the InfoLink® fleet management system, providing the client with all deployment data via a common platform and thereby ensuring optimised utilisation levels. During the coming months, Crown even expects to be able to reduce the Spicer fleet by a further 15 percent or so as InfoLink identifies additional areas where efficiencies can permit the removal of even more trucks.

Customer benefit: improved fleet management and increased reliability
The options offered by the InfoLink fleet management system were one of the main reasons for awarding the new contract to Crown. "We can now monitor exactly what each truck is doing so we can manage our fleet better", says Bobby Arman, Operations Improvement Manager at the office supplies wholesaler. As all drivers now have personal access cards and all the relevant data is stored in InfoLink, the system can prevent a specific driver from operating a truck if he doesn't have the correct driving licence. The result is a significant reduction in damage to the trucks, the racking and the building itself. But even in the case of drivers who are officially authorised to drive the trucks, InfoLink allows Spicers to monitor what they are doing and ensure that their productivity is correctly managed and challenged.
InfoLink also enables Spicers to monitor utilisation of all trucks and to compare performance data at different locations. "This allows us to identify what is working or not working at each location and ensure best practice is consistent across our sites", adds Arman.
A further key argument for choosing Crown after evaluating the tendered bids was quality. "Our experience with our previous fleet was of plastic covers that get knocked and damaged very easily – which meant that they began to look worn out in their first couple of years. The Crown trucks are different – they’re manufactured to a much higher standard with lots of metal covers instead of plastic. This was a key point for us as we felt the trucks would last better and be more reliable in our busy working environment”, says Arman.
The Crown trucks have now been in operation for several months – and Spicers is more than satisfied. Which is why Bobby Arman takes an extremely positive view of this project: "It’s fact – Crown really has helped to reduce our operating costs and improve our efficiency."

IFOY AWARD  WWW.IFOY.ORG
The International Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) recognises the year's best materials handling equipment and solutions in four categories. The aim of the non-profit organisation is to document the performance capability and innovative drive of the materials handling sector, helping to boost competitiveness and raise the profile of the entire intralogistics sector in the public arena. The winners of the IFOY Award are selected once a year by an independent jury of international trade journalists. A neutral test forms the basis for assessment by the jury. The sponsor of the IFOY Award is the VDMA Materials Handling and Logistics Systems Sector Association. The patron is the German Ministry of Economics and Technology, the presentation partner is the leading international CeMAT trade fair in Hannover. The headquarters of the IFOY Organisation are in Munich.
Members of the jury: Martin Althoff, Editor-in-Chief Logistiek Totaal (Netherlands), Theo Egberts, IFOY tester and owner of Buro Andersom/Andersom Testing (Netherlands, without voting rights), Günther Hörbst, Editor-in-Chief Deutsche Logistik-Zeitung (DVZ) (Germany), Anders Karlsson, Editor-in-Chief Transport & Logistik iDag (Sweden), Peter MacLeod, Editor-in-Chief SHD Magazine (England), Bernd Maienschein, Editor-in-Chief MM Logistik (Germany), Marilena Matei, Editorial Manager Tranzit and Tranzit Logistica (Romania), Isabel Rodrigo, Editor-in-Chief Logística Profesional (Spain), Hans-Joachim Schlobach, publisher and Editor-in-Chief BUSINESS+LOGISTIC (Austria), Sascha Schmel, Managing Director of the VDMA Materials Handling and Logistics Systems Sector Association (without voting rights), Dr. Petra Seebauer, Editor-in-Chief LOGISTIK HEUTE (Germany), Sebastian Śliwieński, Editor-in-Chief Warehouse Monitor (Poland), Heres Stad, Editor-in-Chief Logistiek (Netherlands). Executive Jury Chairperson is Anita Würmser, logistics journalist and Managing Director of wuermser.communications (Germany).

Reproduction free of charge, courtesy copy requested.

Anita Würmser
Chair of the IFOY Jury
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