Diamond Fruit Case Study: Gerlinger Leans on the Past
Gerlinger’s Straddle Carriers are designed to work in the world’s harshest environments, with some of the world's biggest refineries using Gerlinger Carriers for transporting heat exchange tube bundles. Could such a rugged piece of machinery be adapted to move something that required a delicate touch like fruit?
That was the challenge Gerlinger faced when Diamond Fruit approached us in 2018 to help them find a reliable and effective transportation solution for moving fruit bins between facilities.
The Problem:
- Having recently consolidated several satellite facilities to the main plant, Diamond needed to find a solution that enabled them to transport the increased number of bins quickly and efficiently.
- Existing options were explored but fell short in some capacity. Diamond needed a tailored solution.
- Gerlinger Straddle Carriers had once been used in transporting fruit for processing and Diamond decided to approach Gerlinger to pursue that option again.
The Solution:
- The team at Gerlinger started to explore what features a straddle carrier would need to meet Diamond’s transportation needs. The Gerlinger team toured the Diamond facility, interviewed key staff, and examined the transportation hurdles the business faced.
- After reviewing all of the available data, the Gerlinger team decided that a carrier must meet two important requirements – It needed to have the capacity to move 15 bins at one time, and it needed to feature a high rate of mobility.
- The Gerlinger Fruit and Vegetable Bin Carrier was developed and became an immediate success for Diamond Fruit. The carrier allowed Diamond to add 12,000 bins to their cold storage and a new production line at their main facility that processes 100 bins an hour.
“Without the carrier, I don’t know how we would have managed our production other than to use four or five lift trucks. I would say that the Gerlinger Carrier is doing outstanding work,” - Diamond Fruit Maintenance and Project Manager Nick Erickson.
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