“Before we started using the RAVAS forks, residual volumes in the tanks was an educated guess. Now we weigh all tanks on the forklift: much quicker and we know exactly how much beer is returned.”
- NOUT VAN DE WIEL, WAREHOUSE OPERATOR
Serving the planet...
Heineken NV is a Dutch multinational brewing company with global activities in 178 countries. With a yearly beer volume of 200 million hectoliters, produced and distributed under many local, premium and specialty brands, Heineken ranks as the third largest brewer worldwide. Employing 80,000 people, operating 165 breweries, and creating a yearly turnover of 20 billion Euro, Heineken truly serves the planet.
Beer tanks: 1,000 liters a serving
Heineken Event Services (HES) is a specialized activity that supports and supplies events, from parties to festivals. Depending on the scale of the event, HES can provide anything from beer tap installations to bar crews, or even the complete infrastructure for an event. And of course: beer. And at events, beer comes in 1,000 liter tanks.
Weighing beer tanks with iForks
At their facility in Oss, the Netherlands, Heineken Event Services receives return shipments of beer tanks. Rows of shining stainless steel tanks mounted in frames, are stacked two on top of each other. Forklifts offload the tanks from spotless white and green trailers and drive them inside, where the tanks are emptied of remaining beer, cleaned and refilled. Since customers are only invoiced for the amount of beer actually consumed, the amount of beer left in a tank needs to be determined. Heineken uses iForks on their forklifts to do this.
"Before we used iForks, residual volumes in the tanks was an educated guess."
Nout van de Wiel, warehouse operator: ”Before we started using the RAVAS forks, determining the residual volumes in the tanks was like making an educated guess. It took a lot of time and we always stayed on the safe side, so we probably missed out on turnover. Now we weigh all tanks on the forklift truck that moves them around. It’s much quicker and we know exactly how much beer is returned. so we save a lot of time, and we make more money. Next step will be to record the weight information more efficiently. Like on a PDA.”
COMPANY
Heineken
LOCATION
Oss, Netherlands
APPLICATION
Checking incoming goods
Checking incoming goods
At goods reception, incoming shipments are checked and registered. Often it is being checked whether the right type of goods and the right quality is supplied, but not whether it is the right amount. And in these days of small stocks and just-in-time deliveries an incomplete shipment has immediate consequences for the production process. That costs money. With a mobile scale integrated in your pallet truck or forklift truck you check incoming goods while they are being offloaded from the lorry. If an incomplete delivery is signaled, you can react on the spot. Thus you prevent stock differences and interrupted production processes.