Warehouse equipment and safety truck manufacturer Crown has outlined the efficacy of one of its innovations by describing the experience of one of the largest razor manufacturers in the world.

When revamping storage activities at its manufacturing facility in Germany, Wilkinson Sword GmbH opted for two man-up Crown TSP turret trucks, the design of which gives the driver ideal visibility, as he or she is always at the same height as the load being handled.

The man-up facility also had the added benefit of minimising rack damage, which, Crown said, was another key factor in the purchasing decision by Wilkinson, whose latest product offering is the diamond-coated 3D blade.

Installed at the company's Solingen facility, one of the largest production sites in the world and currently producing over a billion blades a year, the two Crown TSPs transport, store and retrieve up to 350 pallet loads every working day.

As well as assembling and packaging blades and razors, the Solingen plant also manufactures almost all the associated components, some of which are produced on a 24-hour per day basis. In addition to these pallets that must be permanently available, in order to process the daily throughput of product, the main warehouse (1,600 pallet spaces) also contains raw and auxiliary materials which again may be required at short notice and must be easily accessed at all times.

Within each of the 50m-long storage aisles, goods are stored randomly with allocation of 'free' spaces undertaken using the company's integrated SAP computer system. Retrieval is also taken via computer control and is based on the production demand of each shift.

Giving details of the TSPs functioning at the plant, Crown said they were capable of operating in minimum aisle widths of just 1,970mm and featured their own on-board computer systems, while the ergonomically designed cab layout maximised driver comfort and efficiency. The design of the trucks also made it possible to pick stock directly from the rack.

"As the driver sometimes has to take individual samples out of the boxes, this is another advantage to be gained using a Crown man-up rather than a man-down truck, commented Werner Schuppik, head of logistics at Wilkinson Sword, giving Crown the thumbs up.

The official said the trucks were comfortable and easy to handle, the drivers liked working with them and they hardly needed any repairs.

Schuppik said the Crown equipment made it possible to make the best use of the existing warehouse space while also introducing the safety element in the operations.