At its headquarters in Perthshire, Scotland, Taypack grow, procure, quality grade, wash and pack approximately 130,000 tonnes of supermarket potatoes a year. Within the factory, the potatoes are moved around by a fleet of forklift trucks and until installation of the ImpactManager system, unreported damage and unauthorised use of the trucks meant that too much time was being spent managing the truck fleet, as well as the added cost of repairing the damage both to the factory and the trucks themselves. There was also a serious health and safety implication, as untrained drivers could cause serious injury either to themselves or others.
"We were about to purchase a new fleet of trucks and it was a good time to review our existing procedures." explains Matt Dunmore, Engineering Development Manager at Taypack. "We wanted to eliminate the problems of unauthorised access to our equipment as we operate an ethical supply policy and take health and safety into consideration at every step of the supply chain. We also wanted a system that would allow us to concentrate on the business of supplying supermarkets rather than on the minute by minute control and worry of running a large materials handling fleet."
The Lamerholm ImpactManager provided the perfect solution. ImpactManager ID is a compact unit that is easily mounted in the vehicle cab. It detects impacts and records event details such as date, time and driver ID.
As well as providing timely impact information, use of the ImpactManager ID increases operator accountability and improves driver behaviour. For health and safety managers, installation of impact detection equipment reinforces safe vehicle operations and procedures without supervisory presence. This data is then downloaded for use by the Fleet Maintenance Manager at Taypack.
Impact monitoring capability comprises a patented, fully adjustable, 360° impact sensor. Once a collision is detected, the time, date and driver ID are recorded and stored in the memory downloading and further investigation and analysis. In addition to monitoring and recording, the ImpactManager can be programmed to immobilise the truck once an impact has occurred. There is also an option for activating a siren or truck horn either continuously or for a specified period of time. This is a particularly useful safety feature to alert other personnel to check for injury. The truck can also be completely disabled.
The ImpactManager software is at the heart of the system allowing managers to set parameters and analyse the resulting data, the power of which allows better decision making when it comes to reducing damage and injury costs.