Beverage maker toasts a 30% hike in productivity
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 9/15/1999
Brown-Forman Beverages Worldwide, Louisville, Ky., specializes in fine adult beverages, from Southern Comfort to Jack Daniel's.Along with manufacturing (or distilling), Brown-Forman also ages, bottles, packages, stores, and distributes more than 1,800 different SKUs every year. The company packages and ships 40,000 cases of product in a single, eight-hour shift. According to logistics manager James Bradshaw, highly automated bottling lines, an experienced work force, and a reliable fleet of lift trucks help maintain this pace.
"Timeliness is necessary in our business," explains Bradshaw. "Our customers want what they want, when they want it, and at the price they want it. Most of the pressure falls on us (the distribution facility) to get orders out in a timely fashion."
Brown-Forman relies on its lift trucks to unload and move thousands of cases of product every day. The company operates a palletless warehouse, which poses additional challenges for its lift truck fleet. With the average load weighing in at 2,500 lb and shrink-wrapped into a 40 x 46 x 58 in.cube, moving it with no pallet takes some getting used to.
"Once we realized putting 1,800 lb per sq in. of pressure on glass wouldn't break containers, we were fine," Bradshaw remembers. The company currently uses clamp attachments on its lift trucks to move the shrink-wrapped loads. "Our lift trucks need to be operable; it's as simple as that. Uptime means everything to our success. With our new lift trucks, we are confident that uptime will always be there," says Bradshaw.
Such confidence wasn't always present in Brown-Forman's lift truck fleet. Prior to switching to Cat lift trucks, the company's aging, mix-and-match fleet grew increasingly unreliable.
"We had a 'Heinz'-type fleet-all 57 varieties. And each was from the 1970s era," says Bradshaw. "We had so many service-related problems with our old lift trucks, it became necessary to replace them."
Brown-Forman's decision to purchase lift trucks was not made in haste. Bradshaw asked suppliers for proposals. In the meantime, Bradshaw checked out references.
Bradshaw's lift truck operators tried out lift trucks from different manufacturers. "I was able to get my employees the lift trucks they wanted at a competitive price. From a quality and value standpoint, I feel we've made the best decision," says Bradshaw.
Brown-Forman employees also feel comfortable with the lift trucks. To date, not a single complaint has been made about the new fleet. Employees have also increased the shipping volume by 1,000 cases a day (from 3,500 to 4,500 cases) with the new lift trucks.
Service from the dealer was a big decision factor in selecting a fleet supplier. The dealer introduced Brown-Forman to single-double fork attachments. The old lift trucks had difficulty unloading trucks with fixed double-wide attachments. New attachments, however, have helped to increase the company's shipping volume.
Another beneficial step taken by the dealer was refurbishing some vehicles in the old forklift fleet so the company could donate them to a local charity. The dealer cleaned and fixed the old forklifts as well as inspected and serviced their batteries and chargers.
Now, with a single dealer, Brown-Forman has one-stop shopping for service. There's no worry about getting a phone call through to the right person to work on a truck. One call to the dealer is made, and the problem is as good as solved.
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