MATERIALS HANDLING NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019
GONE IN
60 SECONDS
STILL Material Handling launched its flagship
new RX-60 forklift at an event in Hamburg, and
Manufacturing Management was there to witness it
BY CHRIS BECK
Manufacturers
are sticklers for
efficiencies: in the
lean world of the
shopfloor, every
second counts.
Imagine, then, what you could
do with an extra minute in
every shift. What gains could
you make, and how much more
could your workers get done?
That was the question on
everyone’s lips at the launch of
the new STILL RX-60 forklift
truck, which took place at the
company’s HQ in Hamburg.
People often overlook the
efficiency gains that can be
brought about by high-quality
materials handling operations;
however, the all-electric RX-
60 aims to dispel those. The
fastest-accelerating forklift of
its size on the market, and with
a top speed of 13mph, the RX-60
can shave valuable seconds off
each individual movement in
the factory or warehouse.
It’s not just raw speed,
either. The RX-60 has an
ergonomically designed cab to
allow the driver to get in and
out quickly, safely and easily.
It also has a quick-start mode,
which prepares the truck for use
as soon as the driver takes their
seat, again saving precious seconds. Warehouses
are often seen as nothing more than the ‘shed’
at the back of the factory – the black hole where
efficiencies go to die. STILL hopes, however, that
the capabilities of the new RX-60 forklift help
bring the idea of time-saving in materials handling
to the forefront of those on the shopfloor.
At the RX-60 launch, Manufacturing
Management sat down with Henry Puhl,
president of STILL GmbH, to discuss the new
truck, and trends in the materials handling
market:
Manufacturing Management: You have a
tagline: ‘efficient simplicity’. How does this
relate to the needs of your customers?
Henry Puhl: Everybody wants to make their
processes more efficient. But our integrity is
‘simplicity’. Simplicity means we want to be easy
to deal with. We want to have easy to understand,
easy to adapt, easy to change solutions. Our
products have to be very simple, because we truly
believe if they’re not simple, people will not use
them. It starts with the controls in the forklift, but
it goes all the way to the software needing to be
easy to understand. Today we see a lot of even very
small companies doing very complex projects, and
we always drive towards this more modular, more
standardised, simplicity, because we feel this is
where our customer base can relate to best.
STILL works in partnership with
Runcorn healthcare company
STILL has supplied 13 trucks, of various sizes, to global healthcare specialist, Fresnius
Kabi. The manufacturer recently opened a new 8,500m2 purpose-built warehouse
facility at its premises in Runcorn, and required a complex, mixed materials handling
solution. Having had a ten-year relationship with STILL, it was the logical choice to
turn to when Fresnius Kabi was searching for an answer.
“We needed to modernise our battery changing facility and upgrade our reach
trucks to ensure they could perform at the top picking heights within our new racking,”
says Jenn Sutton, operations process manager at Fresnius Kabi. “Essentially, we
wanted to increase our fleet size with the view to increasing our outputs.”
STILL supplied the company with a flotilla of new materials handling equipment,
including a new RX-20 electric counterbalance truck – the little brother of the
newly launched RX-60 – for external loading and unloading of goods. All the new
trucks are fitted with STILL’s 4.x Fleet Manager software, which allows the Fresnius
Kabi management team to monitor when – and how – the trucks are being used.
“In addition, we are looking to pre-programme our new reach trucks to specific lift
heights, which will enhance our health & safety, reduce racking damage and prevent
impacts on the sprinkler heads,” adds Sutton.
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