Combilift is Marley's safe space saver

Three Combilift 4-way forklifts working at Marley Plumbing and Drainage have enabled massive savings to be made on storage space and ensured safer handling of long loads at the company's manufacturing and distribution facility in Lenham, Kent.

Marley is the leading supplier of above and below ground drainage systems and manufactures pipe, gutter and associated products at the 40 acre site. Significant investments have been made in the site's infrastructure in the last year and a half, with storage and handling procedures also being put under scrutiny in a bid to streamline overall handling and warehousing operations.

The 4-tonne diesel powered Combilifts have enabled Marley to do away with its old system based on a combination of sideloaders and counterbalance forklifts for handling loads such as 6m lengths of pipe, extruded profiles and large bore pipes. This pared down approach has certainly paid off, as Warehouse Manager Stuart Hawkins explains: "The beauty of the Combilifts is their versatility and ability to work as three machines in one. We can offload and manoeuvre product around the site with just the one type of forklift, reducing any double handling."

As well as speeding up operations, using the one truck eliminates the need for drivers to chop and change from one type of forklift to another, contributing to safer working practices. Stuart also points out the safer implications of travelling with the long loads resting on the Combilift's platform. With counterbalance forklifts, transportation with elevated loads was necessary to negotiate obstacles or other stacked product around the site.

Considerable savings have also been made on space in the 3 outdoor storage areas or "plinths" as they are known at Marley. A total of 22,000m2 accommodates the stillages of product supplied to all the major UK household names in the DIY and builders' merchant sectors.

"Before we had the 4-way capability of the Combilifts, our major problem was that we needed 7m wide aisles to manoeuvre 6m long loads. Since taking delivery of the Combilifts we have cut aisle-widths to 2 or 2.5 metres, so we can store a massively increased quantity in the same space," says Stuart.

All Combilifts are manufactured by Combilift Ltd in Monaghan Ireland. The current range now encompasses over a dozen models with capacities ranging from 2.5 - 14 tonnes, with LPG, diesel or electric power available. The trucks are designed to work inside and out, on semi-rough terrain and in all weather conditions. A team of design engineers at the Monaghan factory in Ireland will also draw up free warehouse layouts to illustrate the best possible use of available storage space using the Combilift system.

Combilift Ltd
Tel UK: 07968 490051
www.combilift.com