Page 40 - Food & Drink Magazine April 2021

SUPPLY CHAIN
Lifting into ecommerce
COVID-19 saw the expected 10-year growth trajectory for ecommerce occur in six months. For specialist materials handling manufacturer Combilift, it was an opportunity to meet customers’ needs like never before. Kim Berry writes.
ESTABLISHED 23 years ago, Combilift entered the MHE sector when company founders Robert Moffett and Martin McVicar launched its C4000 model – the world’s first IC engine powered, all-wheel drive, multidirectional forklift.
Continuous product development ever since has resulted in a portfolio of handling solutions for all manner of products and applications. The company’s growth and success stems largely from commitment to R&D, with seven per cent of annual revenue being invested in this every year, even during COVID-19.
With its global HQ and manufacturing facility in Monaghan, Ireland, Combilift now exports to more than 85 countries and has manufactured around 60,000 of its customised trucks to date. This year the company is celebrating its 20th anniversary of servicing the Australian market.
The rise of online retailing, the above-mentioned stratospheric growth of e-commerce, a shortage of warehousing capacity – which was beginning to be evident even before COVID-19 exacerbated this situation – has led to increasing demand for the for the company’s warehousing range, which includes pedestrian stacker trucks and the Aisle Master narrow aisle articulated forklifts.
rack” operation, helping reduce costs and increase productivity.
The latest Aisle Master model was recently launched onto the market, and CEO Martin McVicar says that this has been very much driven by customer feedback.
“Customers already using the Aisle Master for space saving, storage and efficiency in their warehouse asked if we could redevelop it to meet their ever-growing demand for order picking customised orders –
articulated forklift and an order picker for versatile operation in the warehouse.
“This is a very significant step for us, moving the business into the order picking industry, which had been on the cards for about six years”, he says.
It was the COVID-19 related uptick in ecommerce that pushed AME-OP’s progress along as stockpiling put added pressure on warehousing and supply systems.
A major feature of the AME-OP is the low floor height of 280 millimetres, which allows for single step access from both sides of the truck to speed up order picking compared to a person having to get on and off from a seated position.
McVicar points out that ecommerce goods are not all on uniform pallets, and customers were asking for racking and forklifts to accommodate varying pallet sizes.
“The AME-OP is a major innovation in the warehousing sector and offers the versatility of one Aisle Master for multiple applications. The model isn’t just an order picker, it is multi-purpose and can be used to replenish stock, bringing goods down from higher racks to the bottom once order picking is complete.”
McVicar says the company has design copyright protection for the AME-OP, which has been applied to markets worldwide. It is available in several variants, with lift capacities from 1500 to 2500 kilograms. It can lift up to 12.1 metres and can operate in aisles as narrow as 1650 millimetres.
It has a patented chain steering system, which allows the truck to articulate more than 205 degrees, with an inline drive motor and front drive axle
40 | Food&Drink business | April 2021 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au
“ This is a very significant step for us, moving the business into the order picking industry, which had been on the cards for about six years.”
Capable of working in very narrow aisles, but without the need for super flat floors or wire guidance that conventional VNA trucks require, Aisle Masters are known for space saving ability and versatile indoor/outdoor and “truck to
much of our R&D is influenced by client feedback and this was also the case with the AME-OP,” McVicar says.
The new stand-on electric powered Aisle Master-OP (AME-OP) combines the features of a narrow aisle