Achieving high availability when automating food and beverage storage and distribution

With demand growing, SKUs proliferating and labor availability continuing to be an issue, food and beverage manufacturers and distributors are increasingly turning to automation to reduce labor dependencies, adapt to changing market requirements and enable continued growth. 

Today’s automation systems are well equipped to support those objectives. Crane-based automated storage and retrieval systems, for example, enable space-constrained manufacturers and distributors to grow up rather than out, providing higher storage density within existing facilities. These systems also improve inventory management and increase process efficiency. Pallet shuttles can offer even higher density and throughput and are ideal for high-volume environments with fewer SKUs.

Automation is also enabling huge improvements in case handling and pallet building. Today’s mixed-case picking and palletizing solutions fully automate one of the most space-consuming and labor-intensive processes in the food and beverage value chain, while streamlining store replenishment. Receiving intelligently built pallets based on retail store layout has been shown to reduce the time and labor required to restock store shelves by 17%.

But as powerful as automation can be, it can also prove to be the Achilles heel of the food and beverage value chain if it can’t meet the demands of the environment. When automation systems go down, production and distribution can come to a halt and losses pile up quickly. At Swisslog, we recognize the critical role automation plays in operational continuity and have developed a multi-faceted approach to maintaining high availability of our automation solutions.

Our Vectura cranes, for example, are proven in more than 2,000 warehouses worldwide with many in continuous operation for more than 20 years. These solutions have continued to evolve with lighter, more modular designs and features such as industry-leading use of regenerative energy without compromising their legendary reliability. That reliability is designed into every component from the bottom frame to the forks. 

With four types of bottom frames featuring different heights and thickness, frames are tailored to the application to ensure the strength and stability required. The crane chassis is also tailored to project requirements and heat-treated after welding to remove material stress. Our modular, tapered single or double mast designs streamline installation and our ultra-strong fork designs enable up to triple-deep reach. For multi-deep storage solutions, a reliable 8-wheel driven satellite is used. For freezer applications, we use specific components,  cables, and grade of steel to deliver reliable operation in this demanding environment.

All Vectura cranes leaving the Swisslog factory are tested and commissioned and enable easy serviceability. Crane controls are rear facing and accessible from floor level with emergency drive controls accessible without opening the cabinet.

Designing Holistically

The availability of an automation solution can be negatively affected when the various components of a solution don’t work together as one system. That’s why we take a holistic approach to solution development and design.

The foundation of that approach is minimizing single points of failure at the component and system level. We start with an understanding of our customers’ reliability goals and configure redundancy based on those goals, enabling process continuity if one part of a system is down for service. 

Our approach also ensures that all components within the solution communicate with each other to support fast recovery from minor issues, such as when a loose piece of shrink wrap stops system operation. To enable this, we’ve implemented a Single Point of Control feature in our solutions, which allows maintenance personnel to clear an error once and have that clearance communicated to all the systems that need to change. That gets automation up and running much faster than if errors have to be cleared separately for each component of the solution. This Single Point of Control also provides consistency, simplicity and ease of use across all displays and screens used by operators and managers, minimizing the risk of downtime related to operator error.