We were recently involved with a card shop chain that was looking to improve the safety aspect of transferring the helium bottles from the store room to the shop floor. The deliveries are made on a weekly basis directly from the supplier in Kent to the shops based in and around the London M25 area.

Employees were currently struggling to roll the bottles from the stockroom to a designated area to inflate helium balloons for customers. The client stored three sizes of cylinders delivered to the shops and these could be a mixture depending on the stock and price from the helium cylinder supplier, so the trolley had to be adaptable in such it had the ability to securely take the various height and diameters of cylinders shipped out to the stores.

Having struggled to make do with a static stand to keep the bottles in the back and with the increased popularity of the balloons especially in high customer traffic hotspots like train stations in London, it was very clear the customer needed to find a solution that could help. Thankfully the client found us on the internet. After a brief conversation with the customer to get a feel of what the end goal was, it made sense for us to make arrangements and visit head office and a shop nearby.
 
Jonathan Ball our sales manager visited one of the shops in central London to see first-hand the issues that the client was facing and to measure up the three cylinders that the client had to ensure the new trolley could handle. He also checked out the environment in which the trolley would be used so he could advise on the best style of trolley, fittings and wheeling, so the movement and securing points were perfect and simple for the staff to use and help them carry out the filling as smoothly as possible.

Having discussed the procedure and watched the staff carry out the function of moving the cylinders and measured the points in which the cylinders needed to be secured and the tap height, we were able to go away and produce a sample trolley for the client to try and test. 

The sample was a great success .. staff commented on how easy it was to move the cylinders and loved the simple adjustable straps to make the cylinder sit back safely within the v-cradle at the rear of the trolley. This is always our favourite part of the problem solving puzzle for us at Action Handling, when a customer comes to us with a problem that in same cases has been on-going for years and yet within a few phones calls and a visit we can help find the solution to make the customer’s workplace better and safer.

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