13 minute read
Following the leader
from MHD Jun 2020
VFS has saved more than $150,000 on forklift gas since switching to a battery electric fleet.
From working night shifts on ground, to becoming Director of Operation at Victorian Freight Specialists, Chris Collins reveals the importance of the company’s high-performing Jungheinrich EFG forklift trucks.
Growing need for expansion of warehouse space and rising e-commerce business in Australia has significantly increased demand for forklift truck replacement and bulk investment in purchase of electric forklift trucks for warehouse operations.
In recent years, there has been a considerable shift away from internal combustion to electric powered forklifts. Chris Collins, Director of Operation at Victorian Freight Specialists, began his career in transport working with his father and grandfather in their family transport business, Express Freight.
He joined Victorian Freight Specialists over 22 years ago as a night operations manager, and although now he oversees the company’s entire operations department, Chris still loves the feeling of team spirit when he works the occasional night shift.
“I’ve done some night shifts recently to see how things are going, and I just can’t believe how different warehouse operations are now because of our Jungheinrich EFG forklift trucks,” he said. Chris used to return home every night for 10 years covered in gas smoke residue from head to toe.
“When I was out on the floor, there were 20 or so forklifts making a loud racket buzzing around with gas. I would finish my shift with a dirty face and a really bad taste in the throat,” he says. Chris credits the Jungheinrich EFG trucks as a game-changer for not only his health, but for the entire business as a whole.
“At a time when health is so essential, having an outstandingly clean site because of our powerful EFG trucks is setting a new standard in terms of ergonomics. It’s a pleasant environment at work, and I know our staff are thankful across the board, due to the changes in our forklift model,” Chris says.
SILENT ACHIEVER
Australia has witnessed significant growth in the industrial property market over the past few years, with greater interest by property and real estate investors to invest in business parks and logistics. VFS cater for local and regional distribution through Victoria and Southern New South Wales and have recently expanded their operations, which sparked the need to revamp its essential equipment.
“Our focus is to have the best equipment possible. We had internal combustion trucks for years because they’re a cheap unit. Then we trialled other products, and compared to other EFG trucks on the market, Jungheinrich is the only brand that ticks all the boxes,” Chris says.
VFS have over 175 employees across five large depots in Dandenong, Truganina, Wodonga Geelong and Gippsland. VFS provide general freight services and are the biggest general freight carrier in the state of Victoria.
Chris says it’s a giant organisation that requires the most reliable equipment to serve Australia’s wellknown hardware, pharmaceutical, automotive and beverage providers.
“It’s more important than ever to provide efficient and cost-saving service to our customers who are also providing an essential service during this time. The efficiency we’ve created is because of Jungheinrich EFG forklift trucks already in operation,” Chris says.
“We’ve achieved a win across all categories. Jungheinrich provide
superior units that are ergonomic and proven to be the best equipment for our operations.”
WORKPLACE WITH COMFORT
Chris says VFS prides itself on being a loyal company, committed to offering good, old fashioned customer service. When choosing new machinery that has the capacity to alter business operations for good, he says it’s about finding a provider that aligns with your company’s values.
For many workers, like Chris, who have been involved in warehouse operations for many years, the introduction of new technology through shifting from internal combustion trucks to EFG trucks has been a welcomed miracle, and now the staff will never look back.
“Mistakes in the warehouse are dangerous. Jungheinrich has provided a safer unit with ergonomic design resulting in great throughput and driver comfort,” Chris says.
Safer operation during a time of unprecedented demand has been crucial to sustaining workplace morale and operations, Chris says. He highlights the massive difference from no longer experiencing the setbacks with previous gas units.
“No changing LPG bottles and no inspecting IC Engines, no exposure to exhaust fumes, has provided substantial saving. Minimum operation noise with the battery electric unit means a quieter and more efficient ride for the operators,” Chris says. He also pointed out there has been notable savings in fuel costs due to low power input for chargers, rather than renting and storing LPG bottles.
“The business was spending over $150,000 a year just on forklift gas alone before we thankfully changed to our electric fleet, and now these units are installed at all of our depot sites,” he says.
VFS utilises Jungheinrich EFG trucks for maximum performance at minimum energy consumption. Jungheinrich economic designs result in workspace safety and driver comfort.
“It’s amazing how changing over a forklift model can transform a warehouse into a cleaner environment. Before we went to our full fleet of electric trucks, Jungheinrich ran charging numbers and trials that really made us feel comfortable with our choice,” Chris says.
EFFICIENT AND EASY
Li-ion batteries are revolutionising the market for electric industrial trucks. Jungheinrich’s li-ion batteries ensure continuous operation and thanks to their long service life, Chris says VFS are getting plenty of use out of them.
With units requiring battery changes, the Jungheinrich Snap fit System has ensured a safe and non-time-consuming method of installation, in two minutes. Chris says the new Lithium Ion units installed at the company’s Wodonga site allows 24-hour operation without the need to change batteries.
“When you tender for major work, you have to be able to ramp up operations and have key machinery in place that are also sustainable and cost-efficient,” Chris says.
He added that the professional ongoing service has helped maintain the electric fleet to always be high preforming machinery. “One thing that goes without saying is that the Jungheinrich After Sales Service works excellently and is always there when you need it, which is rare.”
Cleaner energy technology has provided new possibilities for VFS’ warehouse efficiency. “The Jungheinrich equipment has improved our efficiencies and substantial savings in our operational costs,” Chris says.
After rolling out the full fleet of electric trucks across all VFS’ depots, Chris wishes the company converted to the smarter and cleaner units sooner. “We always want to be on the front foot and have the most innovative and safe equipment that has proven results, which we definitely have,” Chris says. ■
Brand Collective boasts a portfolio of iconic fashion brands.
MEETING AUSTRALIA’S APPETITE FOR ONLINE FASHION RETAIL
Brand Collective is one of Australia’s leading fashion and apparel omnichannel retailers. The organisation receives nearly 4,000 orders every day. Daniel Allison, Logistics Manager and Caleb Brown, Chief Finanical and Operating Officer at the company reveal why its WMS has been at the heart of any process improvements.
Atruly omnichannel retailer, Brand Collective runs around 18 different retail platforms across a number of Australia’s most prominent brands in fashion and apparel.
Brand Collective boasts a portfolio of iconic owned and licensed brands, including Superdry, Volley, Clarks, Hush Puppies and Julius Marlow.
The company’s distribution centre in Altona North, Victoria services the entire Australian and New Zealand market.
Across its brand portfolio, Brand Collective operates in the B2C space as well as B2B, servicing online orders for the likes of Myer and THE ICONIC as well as marketplaces such as Ebay, Catch and Amazon.
Taking up the largest share of Australia’s e-commerce pie, fashion and apparel saw above average growth in Australia in 2019, at 22.3 per cent year-on-year. In addition, fashion remained the most popular category for Australia’s online shoppers, accounting for 35 per cent of all purchases.
These statistics were recorded prior to the COVID-19 online shopping boom, which has seen e-commerce levels break all previous numbers on record.
Without revealing specific numbers, Caleb Brown, Chief Financial and Operating Officer at Brand Collective confirms the company’s e-commerce growth in 2019 was significantly higher than Australian market trends.
“We’ve definitely seen significant growth across our online retail during COVID-19, particularly when all the retail stores started to close down at
Caleb Brown is Chief Financial and Operating Officer at Brand Collective.
Daniel Allison is Logistics Manager at Brand Collective.
the end of March,” Daniel Allison, Logistics Manager at Brand Collective says.
Many consumers had no choice but to switch to online shopping and for many, this was their first delve into the e-commerce world.
It is predicted that this increase in online shopping is here to stay, and omnichannel retailers such as Brand Collective are already reaping the benefits of investing in a sophisticated and advanced Warehouse Management System (WMS) to meet this increase in demand.
LOCAL SUPPORT FOR THE ANZ MARKET
At its national distribution centre in Altona North, Brand Collective delivers an impressive amount of e-commerce orders. Fulfilling between 2,000 to 4,000 orders per day, that cover 25,000 to 35,000 units, the DC services 2,000 wholesale customers, 120 retail stores and 15 e-commerce stores. The site is home to nearly 50,000 SKUs and approximately 1.8 million units.
“The capacity across our brands was really tested during COVID-19 peaks in demand, but one thing we knew for sure was that the Microlistics software was rock solid,” Daniel says.
Daniel says the challenge at the beginning was ensuring Brand Collective had the right amount of resources in the right place, Microlistics WMS ensures they fulfil orders in 24 hours and there has been no issue in the software meeting the increase in demand.
For Daniel, one of the most important measures of success for Brand Collective is due dates. “Everything we do is based on meeting due dates, in order for us to meet customer delivery windows the order has to leave the warehouse on time. Since introducing Microlistics, we have total
visibility of that and as a result we have been smashing our targets in this space,” he says.
Brand Collective implemented Microlistics WMS around four years ago. Daniel played a central role in the procurement and implementation of the project and says the whole team was unanimous in the decision that Microlistics was the right provider for Brand Collective.
“When selecting a new WMS provider, we ran a really exhaustive process. We involved most of the team in the process and invited a number of different vendors in to present their solution. We then asked each of the team members to rate and score them accordingly,” Daniel recalls.
Daniel says the decision was clear, Microlistics was the right vendor largely due to their flexibility. A further winning factor was that the support team are based in Australia. He also says that they were competitive on price.
“As they have a local support team, they know and understand who we are and what we’re trying to do. They know how our operation works and can quickly identify any issues, instead of 50 different steps you have to go through with a vendor that
The Brand Collective site at Altona North is home to nearly 50,000 SKUs.
doesn’t understand the market you operate in,” Daniel says.
REAL-TIME REPORTING
According to Daniel, one of the major benefits that Brand Collective has been able to realise through the Microlistics WMS is the amount of data and reporting that the business has access to.
“A huge upside for us is that this new system has given us so many opportunities to extract more data and continues to give us advanced visibility compared to our old system,” Daniel says.
Historically, if Daniel wanted to gain access or insight, he would have to engage the IT department and wait days for the information. But now, since implementing Microlistics, he says he can get access to whatever data he needs at the click of a button.
“We have also used the system to generate some automatic reports, that way we can continually refresh them throughout the day and see where we’re at in real-time,” he says.
This is echoed by Caleb. “Our previous WMS was not user friendly in terms of self-service data extraction. Getting simple information out of it was difficult and time consuming. But now we use the data we get out of the Microlistics software to not only
monitor the business in real time, but also to inform ideas around how we can improve efficiency and labour productivity more generally,” he says.
Brand Collective receives online orders constantly. Having access to reports in real-time enables Daniel to make intelligent decisions around resources so that the warehouse operators can keep up with demand.
ADVANCED CAPABILITIES
For Daniel, Microlistics is more than a vendor, they are a trusted partner. They have introduced Brand Collective to many technology partners that meet their needs going forward “We work very closely with the team at Microlistics. They have been very proactive in showing us new technology. Whether it be voice picking or automation, we are constantly looking at ways to innovate with them,” he says.
Brand Collective operates its numerous brands through zoning areas in the warehouse. “Within our warehouse we have 12 different areas for each individual brand. This allows us to become more efficient in putting away stock and reducing pick paths,” Daniel says.
Through this process, Brand Collective uses Microlistics Enterprise which offers advanced omnichannel
Brand Collective receives nearly 4,000 orders a day.
capabilities around picking e-commerce orders efficiently along with store replenishment and B2B wholesale orders, accurately, pack the right carton or parcel to right order and seamlessly manage shipments to carriers. All while being integrated with existing systems for inventory, order management, accounting and online storefronts.
“This profile allows us to pick out an individual order in a dedicated area, instead of having operators moving around the entire warehouse. Zoning our warehouse has offered us significant efficiency gains with picking rates and the Microlistics WMS supports this,” Daniel says.
Brand Collective has approximately 40 different tasks set up in the Microlistics system. “The software allows us to take less time to pick and order, but also allows us to be agile and change workflows with the click of a button. With so many brands, it’s hugely beneficial to be able to redeploy resources accordingly,” Daniel says.
Daniel says the Microlistics team are great to deal with and he is impressed with the proactive approach they take with Brand Collective. “We have had such a great experience with Microlistics and look forward to growing our business further into the future with them,” he concludes. ■
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