According to Kyodo News, Toyota will invest JPY4.6 billion (USD56.9 million) in the plant, which will be its first manufacturing base in South America. Production is slated to start in October 2013.

The forklift manufacturer plans to produce about 5,000 forklifts a year at the Brazilian plant in the financial year ending March 2015. It expects to sell 7,000 units that year.

The addition of the Brazilian factory is expected to reduce the lead time for South American orders from five months to one month. About 120 new jobs will be created

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Combilift collected the Victor Ludorum award, a gold-plated statuette created to mark the FLTA’s 40th year. The trophy presented for the 2008 Combilift CB-multidirectional truck marked the manufacturer’s second success of the night. Its Combi-RT earlier won the Innovation award.

Other big winners include Linde’s 394 displacement pump (Environment), Ravas M-Forks (Safety) and JCB’s Changezee teletruk carriage (Ergonomics); each receiving a solid bronze statuette after an open vote via the FLTA website.

Individual awards were presented to Daniel McKinnon of Global Materials Handling Ltd (Apprentice of the Year), Clive Mansfield of EnerSys (Employee of the Year), and Jim Cameron of FB Chain (Services to Industry).

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“We’re getting better utilisation, better discipline, and better use of batteries,” says Ted Weager, John Lewis’ operations manager, MHE. “This installation has fulfilled our expectations.”

The installation manages battery allocation at John Lewis’ Magna Park, Milton Keynes centre to ensure balanced use, minimises energy consumption and prevents battery systems from drawing too much power when overall demand in the warehouse is above pre-determined limits. This ensures other services are not disrupted and avoids the need for costly, additional electrical infrastructure to keep the installation within budget.

The Magna Park distribution centre opened in 2009 and is John Lewis’ latest investment to support sustained growth. The site covers around 800,000 sqft. (74,300 sqm), with separate zones allocated to different operations which serve the partnership’s 30 retail stores and 20 distribution centres in the UK.

Jungheinrich was selected as the forklift supplier after a competitive tender and recommended EnerSys Motive Power for the battery systems. The fleet comprises very narrow aisle combination pallet stacker/order pickers, reach trucks, ride-on pallet transporters, pedestrian-powered pallet trucks, and electric counterbalance trucks.

Using detailed projections of the handling operations, the parties worked together to assess the battery management requirement. One of the key considerations was the provision of change and charge facilities for the warehouse trucks.

“We wanted a system that avoided the need for 100% spare batteries and offered balanced use to prolong their operational lifespan,” Weager says. “We also wanted to make the best use of the power.”

The warehouse works hard over extended shifts and the batteries need to support long intervals of up to eight hours between charging. The project team specified the highest-capacity batteries available for the various trucks to meet this objective.

EnerSys recommended a novel implementation of its PowerNet battery and power management system to oversee all charging and changing operations. A typical PowerNet installation allows operators to manage their charging patterns to take advantage of off-peak rates for lower price electricity. However, as the system runs on a standard personal computer and is completely configurable in software, it can be set up with a wide range of user-defined parameters to provide a unique set of performance characteristics.

“We decided to manage our power requirements with PowerNet rather than with a costly upgrade to the infrastructure,” Weager says.

EnerSys UK sales manager Mike Gosling explains that the unique aspect of the installation is the way PowerNet is used to manage the consumption. “It also provides ideal rotation of batteries.”

The batteries are charged with EnerSys Powertech HF chargers. According to EnerSys, these offer outstanding energy efficiency, up to 20 % higher than 50Hz chargers. They automatically detect the battery’s level of discharge and will supply only the amount of power needed to restore full charge.

“The HF chargers are smaller and have a premium price, but they save on electricity which helps us meet our sustainability goals,” Weager says.

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EnerSys will have majority ownership in the joint venture with Energy Leader Batteries India Limited, an Indian producer of industrial batteries. The joint venture will serve both reserve power and motive power customers in India.

“As we have noted previously we will continue to expand globally to meet the needs of our customers and to better serve additional geographic markets,” said John D. Craig, chairman, president and chief executive officer of EnerSys. “This transaction, in addition to our recently completed transactions in South Africa and South America, meaningfully expands the addressable markets for our products.”

David M. Shaffer, President EnerSys Asia, added, “The rapid development of infrastructure and modernization in India brings exciting opportunities for EnerSys. The joint venture will also provide products and brands well known to our global customers to support their south Asian growth.”

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 The first two trucks were assigned for a warehouse dedicated to the storage of brake discs, radiators and coil springs - 17,500 pieces in all when at full capacity - and they stack the varying sized pallets to a height of 7.5m. Blue Print inherited the narrow aisle system in this section from the former owners but chose Aisle-Masters over the previous articulated trucks, as Group Distribution and Logistics Director Derek Edwards explains: “The overall build of the Aisle-Masters, particularly the double bearing at the point of articulation, is much tougher than other brands, making them robust enough to withstand the continuous lifting of heavy loads into the racking.”

 Part of an additional warehouse for storing filters was racked out for two further Aisle-Masters which were ordered in the winter of 2010, and the resulting increase in pallet density got rid of the need for outside storage and saved the considerable costs of acquiring further warehousing facilities. Derek Edwards: “We changed from a very wide aisle system with reach trucks to about as narrow as you can get, with 2.1m aisle-widths. By stacking up to 9m we have used all our vertical space to achieve an impressive capacity in an area of just 10,500 ft².”

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Toyota will showcase a range of warehouse equipment that is designed for chilled and cold store environments.

 Sam Coles, commercial director for Toyota explains: “The cost of handling goods in chilled or cold storage warehousing is a lot more expensive than normal environments.

 ”At Toyota we have significant experience working with customers who operate in these environments and we use that experience to help our customers to drive down their costs.”

 At the exhibition Toyota will display its latest warehouse equipment including: a BT Reflex reach truck fitted with a cold store cabin, a BT Levio ride-on powered pallet truck and a selection of BT Lifter hand pallet trucks that are designed for both warehousing and distribution applications.

 ”While chilled conditions are less extreme than those for frozen produce, it is essential to have equipment that fully meets operational demands; this is why Toyota offers a complete range of equipment – all of which are designed to work effectively in chilled operations without any modification. This means that customers have the flexibility to develop a full range of handling solutions for chilled stores without any constraint in terms of truck capability,” said Coles.

 In addition, Toyota will also demonstrate the latest BT Radioshuttle which is a high-performance solution for efficient handling of goods in high-density racking.

 BT Radioshuttle is based on electrically powered load carriers that transport goods in and out of storage tunnels within specially designed racking. The load carriers are operated by wireless remote control, and several units can be controlled from one transmitter.

 This gives operators the freedom to work elsewhere while already initiating retrieval of the next load(s) to be handled. Individual load carriers can be quickly and easily transferred between different storage locations by a conventional forklift truck, adding flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

 The BT Radioshuttle system is suitable for both first-in first-out (FIFO), and first-in last-out (FILO) operations, allowing extremely cost-effective use of expensive warehouse space – particularly in cold or chilled storage operations.

 Coles said: “These new shows are a welcome addition to the events calendar and allow us to talk to visitors about our extensive range of warehouse equipment suitable for this specialised industry. With space utilisation critical in temperature-controlled environments, we will be showing our range of high-density storage solutions that are designed to work in chilled environments and can also be engineered for frozen applications.”

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