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Vinidex is one of Australia’s leading manufacturer and supplier of pipe systems and solutions for the transportation of fluid, data and energy. The company, which is wholly owned by the Metal Manufactures Group, has been Australia’s leading manufacturer of PVC and polyethylene piping systems for over 50 years. Today, Vinidex has seven state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities around Australia, the support of local and international business partners and a nationwide distribution network.

A switch to Linde material handling equipment was just one part of a major efficiency upgrade for leading pipe system and solutions manufacturer Vinidex Pty Limited. Linde’s FleetFOCUS fleet management system was the other key ingredient.

Two years ago the company embarked on an upgrade of its forklift fleet, starting at its Coopers Plains plant in Brisbane, then moving through other Queensland facilities before going nationwide. Now, with Linde as the preferred supplier, Vinidex is transforming its forklift fleet and using the FleetFOCUS fleet management program as a multiplier to leverage the efficiency gains it has already achieved as well as maximising their safety focus.

To date Linde has supplied counterbalance LPG forklifts from two to five tonne capacity, including some fitted with twin drive tyres, wide side-shift fork positioners and air conditioned cabins. The roll out of almost 100 pieces has also included hand pallet trucks, ride-on electric pallet trucks, low-level order pickers, a high-level order picker and ride-on reach trucks.

From a management perspective, FleetFOCUS is vitally important to manage the material handling equipment on our sites, it puts us totally on top of forklift workplace health and safety issues and lets us monitor equipment utilisation

Vinidex was reviewing their material handling equipment nationally and Linde saw the opportunity to demonstrate its product. Following this demonstration, Vinidex moved to partner Linde in Western Australia and New South Wales on top of the already appointed Queensland and Northern Territory sites. As part of the process, feedback was gathered from operators who took part in multi-week trials on production lines, in warehouses and pipe storage yards before the final decision was carefully deliberated. It revolved around more than just equipment performance and pricing, because Vinidex also wanted to transform the way it managed itsforklift fleet.

FleetFOCUS helped Linde emerge as the successful tenderer.

“From a management perspective, FleetFOCUS is vitally important to manage the material handling equipment on our sites,” Graham Jones, Operations Manager said. “It puts us totally on top of forklift workplace health and safety issues and lets us monitor equipment utilisation. Getting new equipment has raised morale amongst our operators. We can restrict who drives what forklift, and it also assists us with impact management and has significantly improved driver behaviour on our sites.”

“The FleetFOCUS swipe card access system means that everyone can be monitored, but we also have complete flexibility. We can even change the order of the questions in the pre-operation check lists so that the drivers can’t just go down the same list each time. FleetFOCUS really makes people accountable. Red alerts such as for impact reports are automatically sent to team leaders, plant managers and warehouse managers by email and phone. When a red-level impact happens then the equipment is restricted to just three km/h on all of our equipment and a reset can only be done by a supervisor. We can investigate and the operator gets the chance to explain how the incident happened.”

Tracking and restricting access to equipment is vital to Vinidex, but with over 100 pieces of material handling equipment at multiple sites now on the FleetFOCUS system, utilisation is also a major issue. Graham Jones sees the Vinidex relationship with Linde as a partnership to which both sides contribute and where FleetFOCUS is a key enabler to monitor and react to utilisation issues. “The implementation of FleetFOCUS has drastically reduced the use of paper based reporting systems on our sites.” he said.

Vinidex has also experienced direct benefits from using Linde’s equipment such as the reduction in LPG use and a reduction in insurance premiums due simply to the standard safety features on the Linde forklifts.

For more information on how Linde’s FleetFOCUS solution can help your business, contact Linde Material Handling today.