Crown Equipment earns international design award

Crown Equipment Corporation, one of the world’s largest material handling companies, has been awarded a Bronze International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).

This year’s win, for the QuickPick Remote order picking system, adds to Crown’s growing list of more than 80 major design awards. Over the last 25 years, Crown has earned 22 IDEA awards from the IDSA. This year, 164 products earned the IDEA among more than 1,700 entries worldwide.

“We are once again honored to be recognized by one of the most prestigious design competitions in the world,” said Mike Gallagher, vice president of design, Crown Equipment. “Crown’s multi-disciplined design team is committed to using state of the art design thinking to help our customers interact with technology and information in new ways and ultimately improve warehouse productivity, safety and sustainability.”

A typical order picker steps on the operator platform approximately 1,200 times a shift. This is comparable to climbing to the second level of the Eiffel Tower up to two times a shift. Crown’s solution uses semi-automated truck navigation technologies to reduce steps and cut “truck on/off” motions by up to 70%, increasing productivity and safety. Crown research has shown that the remote system can save up to five seconds per pick at a 16-foot inter-pick distance. At 100 picks per hour, it could generate as much as a 14% time savings.