Automation in action: real-world examples of warehouse automation in food and beverage
Supply chain automation in food and beverage can take different forms depending on a manufacturer’s business challenges, product mix, plant layout and other factors. That’s why it’s essential to work with an automation partner that understands the industry and has a portfolio of solutions that can be configured to your requirements. Here are four examples of Swisslog projects that demonstrate our ability to deliver solutions that meet requirements and are delivering long-term value.
ASRS expands capacity and efficiency for organic food manufacturer
With capacity at its production warehouse approaching its limit, European food manufacturer Rapunzel needed to expand to continue to meet growing demand for its organic and vegetarian products. Swisslog developed a solution that maximized utilization of the available space, increased the efficiency of inbound and outbound material flows, and was installed and integrated with production without disrupting operations.
One of the interesting things about this application was the use of a crane-based ASRS to manage inbound raw materials – including irregularly sized products such as large bags of cocoa beans, oilseeds and coffee beans – as well as outbound palletized products through the same solution.
The high-bay warehouse developed by Swisslog includes four Vectura double-deep storage and retrieval cranes that support European and industrial pallets as well as bulk raw materials and packaging. Automated conveyors move pallets in and out of the ASRS while AGVs automate supply of materials to production. The solution was sunk 6.41 meters (21 feet) below ground to optimize storage capacity within the warehouse, which is height-restricted by local regulations.
Despite the complexity of orchestrating material flows to and from production and an existing cold storage warehouse, the project was completed on schedule. Through the solution, Rapunzel has increased the efficiency of inbound and outbound material flows at the plant, gained the capacity to support continued growth, and simplified supply chain management.
Beverage manufacturer employs pallet shuttle to drive regional growth
Seeking to expand the production capacity of its plant in Malaysia, Coca Cola turned to Swisslog to design an automated storage and retrieval solution that would support market growth in Southeast Asia.
After analyzing the product profile and throughput requirements at the site, Swisslog developed an ASRS solution around the PowerStore pallet shuttle. PowerStore was the right choice for this project because it excels at providing dense storage for sites with a high number of pallets per SKU and high throughput requirements. The PowerStore system was integrated with an electric monorail system (EMS) to support fast and flexible pallet transfer between the production lines and the automated high-bay warehouse.
Automating storage and palletizing for large food and beverage manufacturer
Almarai is one of the largest vertically integrated dairy companies in the world. The Saudi Arabia-based group also produces fruit juices, baked goods, poultry products and infant formula at its factory in Al Kharj. To serve growing domestic and international markets, Almarai sought to bring a higher level of automation to Al Kharj through development of an automated consolidation facility at the site.
The project touched nearly every aspect of Almarai’s diversified production at Al Kharj yet had to be completed without disrupting operations. In addition, the project required the seamless integration of multiple automation technologies, including a pallet ASRS that would support all four plants at the site, automated conveyors, a palletizing system, and a reefer loading system.
Swisslog Vectura cranes automated pallet storage and retrieval within the newly constructed high-bay warehouse that is the heart of the consolidation facility. ProMove conveyors automate pallet movement between plants and the consolidation facility and within the consolidation facility.
Through the successful integration of multiple automation technologies across the Al Kharj site, Almaria now has the storage capacity to continue to grow while improving material flows and significantly reducing the time and labor required to create mixed-layer pallets based on customer requirements.
Enabling the food and beverage distribution center of the future
Nestle, the largest food and beverage manufacturer in the world, has a reputation for quality and innovation. Those two tenets became the guiding principles of the company’s new 638,000-square-foot distribution center in Leicestershire, England.
The center was developed to handle the efficient distribution of products from eleven Nestle plants across the UK as well as some imported products. In addition to palletizing and distributing high-volume food, dairy, nutrition, beverage, and confectionery products to retailers, the distribution center was designed to manage e-commerce fulfilment for the Nespresso brand, a retail solution for Nespresso Boutique stores, and value-added co-packing for a wide range of Nestlé food products.
One of the key features of the center is the Swisslog ACPaQ automated depalletizing and palletizing solution. ACPaQ is an intelligent solution for production of mixed-case pallets that integrates modular, high-performance de-palletizing and palletizing robots with a light goods shuttle system and conveyors to fully automate the production of store-friendly, mixed-SKU pallets that streamline store replenishment.
The digital distribution warehouse near Nottingham has been recognized by Nestle as “an important step forward for our business and our customers” that allows the company to be faster, more responsive and more agile in how products are supplied across channels.
Getting more from warehouse automation in food and beverage
These are just some of the many solutions Swisslog has deployed for food and beverage manufacturers in recent years, but they represent the range of technologies that can be deployed to solve the capacity, labor and speed challenges being faced by the industry.
If you’re interested in learning how warehouse automation can benefit your business, visit our website or contact us.
