A combined belt & roller conveyor system has doubled efficiency at Cookes Furniture distribution centre in Birmingham and the same system is about to be installed at the retailer's expanding Christchurch store.
Two mezzanine floor belt conveyors and gravity roller tracks were specifically designed by Rusmail Conveyor Systems in Nechells to move items of vastly varying sizes and weights between ground floor and mezzanine floor levels.
James Pike, Operations Director at Cookes said: "When we looked at systems for lifting and moving the furniture around, the Rusmail solution was half the price of other ones, but more importantly it also halved the unloading time from the delivery vehicles. The system has created a logical flow for products through the building, from Goods Inwards through custom storage bays to loading on our own delivery fleet at despatch".
Not only has the system speeded up the movement of furniture, it has made Cookes a safer place to work. Furniture is transferred directly from arriving vehicles onto the bottom of the first belt conveyor which dramatically reduces manual handling for the operatives and no shoulder height lifting.
The powered belt conveyors carry anything from flat pack furniture components to 3-4ft mattresses up to 3 metre sofas weighing 100 kilos. Their simple design with minimum moving parts means there is less to go wrong and the original system, although installed 18 months ago has needed no servicing so far.
The twin of this combined conveyor system is expected to be specified for installation at the Christchurch branch of Cookes in early 2007.
Contact:
Tel. 0121 359 1549
info@rusmailconveyors.co.uk
www.rusmailconveyors.co.uk