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achieve cost savings of €5 to 7 million
every year,” Løge summarizes. “The
now consistently-automated processes
from production via storage to goods
shipping will be the key to reaching this
goal.”
The delivery
SSI Schaefer first equipped a 65m long,
33m wide and 19m high temperature-
controlled high-bay warehouse
(HBW). “Due to the sensitive goods,
the installed cooling system is
equipped with an oxy reduct system
for fire protection purposes,” explains
Peter Lambrecht, head of project
management at SSI Schaefer. “It
reduces the oxygen content in the air
of the warehouse so that an ignition of
unshielded flames is not possible.”
Nearly 7,200 pallet storing positions
are available in the four aisles of the
warehouse complex. Four modern
storage and retrieval machines (SRM)
for pallets carry out the storage
and retrieval processes. “The SRMs
with their components are optimally
designed for the operation in
temperature-controlled warehouses
and have convincing performance as
well as special design features,” says
Lambrecht.
Compared to normal SRMs, the
compact vehicles are not lifted-in via
the open roof, but are pre-mounted,
modular main components which are
assembled on site. Thus, they can also
be transported through access portals
for installation and offer a high degree
of standardization for the components
regarding design and production. This
offers fast availability as well as short
assembly and start-up times. “The low
clearances of the SRMs furthermore
enable an optimal space utilization in
the HBW,” adds Lambrecht.
The pallet-SRMs installed at Tine effect
a performance of 33 double cycles
or 55 single cycles per hour. They
are equipped with a shuttle as load
handling device, which enables a three
to four-fold deep storage in the rack
channels. “The design of the HBW as a
deep lane storage system increases our
flexibility for storage and throughput of
newly introduced products,” explains
Løge. “The high throughput capacity
furthermore offers the potential for
future throughput increases.” Currently
250 pallets are stored from the
production every day and up to 200
pallets are loaded every day at the five
goods shipping gates of the distribution
center. Furthermore, Tine places around
50 new products on the market every
year, meaning that the change and
the extension of the range of products
require storage capacities and a
logistics software that are designed with
high flexibility and efficient processes.
Automated guided vehicles move
the storage pallets from the adjoining
production building into the distribution
centre. Navigated by laser, they forward
the pallets in the production building
to the conveying system in the high-
bay warehouse. This is done via four
in-feed stations. Two additional in-feed
stations including vertical conveyors
are available in front of the HBW. Two
redundantly designed conveyor lines
with roller conveyors and turn tables
with integrated roller conveyors handle
four in-feed and four outfeed spurs of
the HBW. At their endpoints the SRMs
accept the pallets and store these in the
HBW and retrieve the dispatch pallets.
An additional roller conveyor, fed via
transfer units, also acts as provision
buffer for nearly 30 pallets and serves
the outfeed stations at the goods
shipping gates of the warehouse. The
roller conveyor is connected with the
conveying system from the production
area, meaning that order pallets can
also be sent directly to the goods
shipping area. The pallet conveying
system installed by SSI Schaefer has a
total length of more than 400m.
The management and control of the
warehouse processes is done by SSI
Schaefer’s logistics software WAMAS®.
With its extensive functions, WAMAS is
responsible for Tine’s goods receiving
and shipping registration including
loading control as well as stock and
storing position management. Via
the material flow computer, WAMAS
performs the control of the material
flows and the internal transports,
manages the radio data transmission
communication and provides
transparency of material flows, plant
conditions and order processing with
its visualization functions. For efficient
order completion, WAMAS furthermore
considers different retrieval strategies.
“In the time prior to the new distribution
centre, numerous employees were
engaged in warehouse works at
four locations,” says Løge. “We are
now saving many transports by the
centralization of the warehouse
locations and the automated
processes in one of the most modern
production and logistic systems.
We are simultaneously increasing
the throughput significantly and get
extensive process reliability. At the
current quantity, we are therefore
expecting efficiency increases by 30%.
Concerning performance and flexibility,
the plant furthermore offers a capacity
buffer for future growth. So the Jæren
location is an important basis for our
future growth.”
51
Logistics Business Magazine | September 2015
COLD STORE AUTOMATION