August/September feature story:
Crown meets the challenge
Happy Birthday FTD – the logistics industry sure has changed over the last 25 years … and will continue to change. The drive in the industry to do more with fewer resources will carry on, despite taking a short recessionary break. Companies will constantly be on a journey, investigating new methods of improvement in productivity and ways to reduce cost.
Not that long ago, narrow-aisle warehouses were something
special – now they are standard practice
For the last 25 years Crown New Zealand has always looked for opportunities to work closely with customers to define and develop materials handling systems that maximise space and improve productivity. The challenges facing the New Zealand logistics industry are quite unique, so the ability to deliver costeffective customised solutions is important.
Firstly there are physical challenges to overcome. These include meeting the demands of servicing a diverse, sparsely populated distribution channel built on seismic plates and spread over two islands.
To gain improvements in payback, companies are investing in more specialised warehouse equipment and systems to maximise productivity. Balancing the trade-off between the benefits of specialisation while maintaining a degree of business flexibility can also add complications to the decision-making process.
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