Crown remote order-picking technology earns iF Design Award

Crown, the material handling company, has announces that its QuickPick Remote order-picking technology has earned a third international design award for superior design quality, workmanship, ergonomics and innovative functionality. This most recent honour comes from the iF International Forum Design in the "Transportation Design/Special Vehicles" category of its 2014 product design competition. The iF jury has now recognised Crown product design excellence 35 times since 1969.

Crown's QuickPick Remote is one of the first systems of its kind to utilise technology to reduce operator fatigue while improving productivity and safety. Order-picking operatives simply press a button on a wireless transceiver glove to remotely advance the forklift to the next pick location, virtually eliminating the need to return to the operator compartment while picking.

Crown field studies show that the technology helps reduce the number of steps on and off the platform taken by operatives, by up to 70 percent. Customers using QuickPick® Remote have experienced an average of 10 to 25 percent increase in productivity, according to Jim Kraimer, Director of Industrial Design –Europe at Crown.

"Research has shown that warehouse workers may walk up to 25 kilometres and carry up to 5,000 kilogrammes per day," said Kraimer. "With that information – as well as Crown's knowledge of the operator-forklift relationship – our focus is always to improve productivity and efficiency while keeping operators comfortable and safe. With QuickPick® Remote, operators experience much less fatigue from this demanding work environment – and they are more productive."

Each year since 1953, iF juries have been recognising outstanding design from manufacturers and designers. In 2014, the jury received more than 3,200 entries from 48 countries in 17 categories. Juries are comprised of internationally-renowned experts from the fields of design, industry and education who work together to inspect, analyse and test each nomination for design quality, workmanship, choice of materials, degree of innovation, environmental compatibility, functionality, ergonomics, visualisation of use, safety, branding and universal design.