CLARK Case Story - Federal-Mogul Gorzyce

The customer list of Federal-Mogul Gorzyce Sp. z o.o. reads like a “Who’s Who” of the global vehicle industry: Toyota, Daimler, VW, Audi, Opel/GM, Fiat, PSA, Iveco, Nissan, Volvo, MAN and BMW are all supplied with components - primarily pistons - from Southeast Poland. The Gorzyce plant became the largest supplier in the world in 2015, producing 26 million pistons.

The plant’s logistics requirements are equally extensive, and these have been handled by Polish CLARK dealer Suret since 2003. Suret’s role at Federal- Mogul includes all logistics operations in the vast area of production. Suret keeps employees and technology on hand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to ensure production is able to continue efficiently and on schedule. The area of responsibility extends from unloading raw aluminium to the management of raw materials storage and the provision of raw materials through to production, and also includes foundry management, inventory logistics and dispatch and other intralogistical processes. 

Some 120 forklift drivers at Federal-Mogul provide services on behalf of Suret, which also provides the CLARK hire fleet service. In total, 44 CLARK electric forklifts are in operation at the 2,000-strong plant in Gorzyce, including models from the GEX16-20s series and the GEX25 and GEX40 with special Stabau attachments for work in the aluminium foundry. The forklifts transport liquid aluminium to the production area in large vessels, which is “definitely one of the most demanding challenges at the Gorzyce plant” according to CLARK regional manager Marcin Proszowski. Suret demonstrated technical finesse in fleet management with the expansion of a battery charging station on company premises.

The company equipped the charging station with modular Hawker charging devices in March 2016. The system continuously monitors the battery charging process and indicates which battery should be used next. It looks likely that Suret will have even more to do at Gorzyce in the future as the plant is due to be expanded significantly in 2017.