Hovis Bakery's new low-level order picker

A UK bakery's recent purchase of a fleet of specially designed low-level order pickers will help it get bread out to supermarkets faster and more efficiently.

Jungheinrich has supplied 51 EKS 105s to Hovis Bakery, part of Premier Foods, on a five-year contract hire deal. The low-level order picker (LLOP) has been designed to Hovis's specification to provide efficient, safe and dependable order picking and internal transport in the company's three distribution centres.

The regional distribution centre at Dagenham, Essex received 30 of the new Jungheinrich order pickers, 18 went to Motherwell, Scotland and three to Mendelsham, Suffolk.
The three distribution centres deliver 9,000 orders per day to a range of outlets throughout the UK, placing huge demands on the order pickers.

Jim Wright, equipment manager at Hovis, says, "We had been using the old Jungheinrich trucks since the Dagenham site opened in April 2002. We've worked them extremely hard compared to most users but they actually lasted longer than we would have expected."

The LLOP features a cage attachment that allows three stacks to be handled at one time. The cage attachment has chamfered leading edges to guide the stacks straight inside with a slightly wider aperture to allow easier entry without catching.

Hovis found that when the 1.87 metre (6.1 feet) stacks are in the cage, the driver's forward view was obscured, so Jungheinrich developed dual controls that allow the driver to operate the LLOP in either direction while still facing the direction of travel.

"This is more efficient and certainly safer, and safety takes priority over everything, in the whole of our operation," says Wright.

In the past, Hovis found the order pickers would ground when they travelled over the dock leveller into a trailer, due to the variety of trailer heights and specifications. The LLOP has been designed to give greater ground clearance.