Round the clock service for a 24hr operation at Sainsbury's Distribution Centre
With a 690,000 square foot operation, 160 dock doors, a vehicle departing every two minutes and running 24 hours a day, 364 days a year it is little wonder the Sainsbury Distribution Centre at Waltham Point needs a full - time on-site engineer to ensure the docking bays are always available for use. And with about 80 stores to service from this facility and somewhere in excess of 2.5m cases to handle a week, being unable to load goods onto vehicles is totally unacceptable for Sainsbury's, one of the leading food operators in the UK.
 Sainsbury's opened their distribution centre in Waltham Point in 2003 and Crawford UK, the leading provider of industrial doors and docking systems in the UK, won the contract to install all doors and docking equipment for this Distribution Centre and one at Hams Hall in the West Midlands. With Sainsbury's having a strict health and safety policy, ensuring that the design and the ongoing operation would be smooth and problem free were paramount considerations that led to working with Crawford UK Limited and the contractor, Keir Construction.
Specially designed control panels and traffic light sequences were installed to ensure maximum safety during loading. Interlocks were also put in place to prevent doors operating when there were no vehicles present and specifically designed side cushions and top air bag seals were installed to give the tightest possible seal around the vehicles. Bays were also designed to accept standard height and double deck vehicles, providing Sainsbury's with complete flexibility when accepting vehicles into the depot.
Crawford UK also recommended that a Crawford site engineer was permanently placed at the depot so all the products could be regularly maintained and if necessary repaired. It ensures that they have an ongoing maintenance programme and assistance is immediately available in the event of accidental damage or breakdown. This also means products have a longer life span and allows Sainsbury's to take advantage of any ongoing development of products to suit their own day-to-day requirements.
The service programme provided for Sainsbury's ensures there are no call out charges, downtime for repairs can be kept to an absolute minimum, and equipment is always kept in good condition and is therefore unlikely to fail. Spares are also kept on site for key items, which can then be supplemented by a state of the art Spare Parts Centre at the Crawford UK site in Stoke-on-Trent. Sainsbury's service contract with Crawford UK ensures they can budget accurately for repair and maintenance in this product area and receive immediate response to any breakdown or repair issue that arises.
Alan Legg, Site Services Manager at the Sainsbury's Waltham Point depot, comments on the service provided by Crawford UK: "Crawford recommending an engineer permanently on site was a very good idea, and having an engineer who understands all the products is one less thing I have to worry about. Also, as they are regularly maintained, we have fewer breakdowns, which ensures we can keep the operation running smoothly."
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