Sumobel Europa, Spain

BT Reflex N-series case study

This funiture retailer in Málaga, southern Spain, has only been using forklift trucks for two years but they are now an essential part of the service they provide to their customers.

José Manuel Leiva is the warehouse manager: “The main activity of the company Sumobel Europa is to sell furniture.”

The company has four shops and a central warehouse and showroom, where our interview took place.

“Here, we receive the furniture and sort it by destination. We also keep sold items according to the customer’s needs. We manage everything relating to our products, from testing and approval, through to after-sales service – everything from here!

“And absolutely everything that comes in or goes out of this company goes through here. Our forklift drivers are trained and qualified – they are a key part of our operations. If a truck stops, the company stops. Our forklifts are operation all day and we cannot work without them, particularly our reach truck [BT Reflex N-series].

“However, we’ve only been using forklifts for two years. They have made a big difference. We use to handle the goods manually, needing more movements and effort. Now, the risk of damage is lower as goods are moved just twice – in and out. It is not only better for the furniture but also for our workers in that the physical effort required has been reduced.

“The importance of working with forklifts is enormous. We could not do it without forklift trucks! In an ordinary day, we receive and put away about 100 pallets, plus deliveries to the customers – about 100 pallets more. We always have some extra orders, so we are taking about 250 pallets per day with no time for delays.

“Our foklifts have to be in operation constantly. We stack to eight metres, using a truck lift height of 6.5 metres. We have

different racking heights, depending on the size and volume of the goods to be stored.

“We classify goods in order to optimise our use of space. We have pieces at three metres high that we can reach with our BT Staxio SPE125 stacker. The larger racking positions are designated for big furniture items. We use stillages designed to our specification.

“Toyota is a very well known company, and the BT brand is represented in the most important companies we know. We start using forklifts because of an urgent demand for space optimisation without having to expand the floor area of our store. Now, of course, the operation relies on them.

“The first forklift that came in to this company was a BT. The

partner relation with Toyota Material Handling España is very good. They always solve our problems, commercial and technical.

“The collaboration is absolute. Sumobel Europa owns the forklifts and has a maintenance contract with TMHES. Periodically, the TMHES technician checks the trucks – even the paintwork. When he finishes the trucks look like new again!

“One of the main benefits the BT trucks deliver to us is speed. Next it is the ability to fully utilise the space we have. We are not able to calculate the benefits of working with BT trucks. With BT we have won in all respects: speed, reduced manual handling, optimisation of space, flexibility, and safety at work, all thanks to the different forklift features.”