Devon-based Otter Brewery has boosted its productivity by acquiring a bespoke keg clamp attachement for its forklift from B&B Attachments. The brewery’s production has rapidly increased year-on-year along with its practices in sustainability, being named "Most Sustainable Brewery" at the 2011 Society of Independent Brewers awards. To continue the company’s rapid growth, and support the introduction of its first lager and new kegging facilities, the brewery required a solution for handling the extensive number of kegs and casks which are moved on its site every day. Following a full site inspection, B&B Attachments, the leading UK supplier of forklift attachments, supplied the brewery with a bespoke KAUP Keg Clamp attachment. This attachment was specially adapted for use in Otter’s height-restricted warehouse. B&B also provided a fully refurbished attachment for loading and unloading. The customised new Keg Clamp attachment, fitted to a Toyota truck, allows for 12 barrels to be handled in a single lift. It enables a secure grip of kegs and casks and provides ease of movement in the height restricted area for handling both full and empty barrels. The Keg Clamp, says B&B, is the ultimate solution for improving product handling and safety. Its standard features include, low profile stabilisers with long lasting rubber pad, wear indicators on tines, solenoid valve and end of stroke cushioning on side shift movement. The attachment provides the driver with excellent visibility when approaching the load, ensuring safe and secure handling on site. Patrick McCaig, Sales and Marketing Director at Otter, comments: “These attachments are an integral part of our operation. They are used every day, enabling fast and reliable loading, unloading and end of line support. The new specially adapted keg clamp attachment has been chosen for its performance in tight turning spaces, maximum productivity and reliable operation in a height restricted space.” Vimto Out of Home (OoH), the 40-year veteran drinks industry supplier, has consolidated its distribution, scheduling, billing and stock management with Portech Systems’ Field Service Executive (FSE) workflow management system. Following Vimto OoH’s acquisition of frozen drinks supplier The Noisy Drinks Co. in 2015, the company had been operating a combination of paper-based job management and a previous version of FSE developed for the frozen drinks market. Now, Portech’s new FSE serves all of Vimto OoH’s mobile field staff and provides a unified view of stock, work and assets across all parts of the business. The new FSE system provides a centrally managed data collection point that communicates with Vimto OoH’s range of mobile computing devices and eliminates the need for drivers to make multiple return visits to a depot each day. The system also integrates with Vimto OoH’s Sage invoicing system and legacy IT systems, reducing the time taken to generate invoices and improving data quality. Graeme Hodges, Internal Operations Manager commented: “Portech is a great team. They really understand our business model and requirements. This knowledge has been built up over several years, and we trust them to deliver new features and functionality to improve our business processes with the bespoke system they have developed for us.” The system has been rolled out onto Vimto OoH’s existing mobile and rugged handhelds. Portech advised Vimto OoH on hardware selection for temporary drivers and the FSE system also runs on the ruggedised ToughTab tablets procured for those drivers. Shaz Naeem, Managing Director, Portech Systems (pictured), added: “We had been working with The Noisy Drinks Co. for over ten years and when the Vimto OoH team saw the effectiveness of FSE they recognised that it was the right workflow and stock management solution to help them grow the business further. Vimto OoH is just one of the companies that is benefitting from Portech’s expertise in transforming paper-based stock and work management systems with mobile technology that streamlines job management and eliminates the need to shut down operations for stock-taking.” 16 BREWING & BEVERAGE INDUSTRIES BUSINESS Workflow management boost at Vimto www.bandbattachments.com For more information visit: News PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT New attachment improves productivity at Otter www.portech.co.uk For more information visit: 16_Layout 1 15/08/2017 11:19 Page 1