Automation relieves pressure

With the frozen food market in robust health, retailers are increasingly demanding a ‘day one for day two’ ordering process and delivery which is placing increased pressure on third party logistics providers to optimise their services and keep shelves stocked.

The logistics market has been turbulent in 2015 and the challenge for many providers has been attempting to find the elusive balance between offering highly-efficient solutions that have the capability of speed, traceability and throughput but with lower costs and a smaller environmental impact – something that is of ever-increasing importance.

As volumes increase and lead times become shorter, many companies that previously operated manual warehouses have found that their systems simply cannot keep up with the pace at which the industry is changing. Therefore, in order to stay ahead of the competition and improve their flexibility, they have shifted to operating highly-automated cold stores which make use of technology such as conveyors, stacker cranes and robots instead of humans.

There are key benefits to embracing automation and these include:

    •    Reduced costs – as a result of a reduction in man hours and less maintenance.

    •    Better efficiency – automated systems can operate 24/7 without relying on manpower.

    •    Faster product retrieval – no delays associated with manual picking.

    •    Reduced waste – order picking is more reliable so costs associated with returns are significantly cut down.

    •    Safer and more reliable operations – through smoother handling, human error is almost eliminated and data is always available online.

    •    Effective use of space – building costs are kept to a minimum.

    •    Better inventory accuracy – meaning customers have more time focus on other critical areas of their business.

    •    Better tracking of products – important with industry issues surrounding traceability.

Automated warehouses also use considerably less energy than their conventional counterparts, mainly due to the optimisation of product movements by a Warehouse Management System (WMS).

However, their larger size also contributes to a reduction in energy usage. Whereas it is well known that manual cold stores produce the most CO2 per m³ of storage, fully-automated cold storage facilities can be built much larger which leads to an improved ‘volume to surface area’ ratio, resulting in lower emissions per pallet stored.

With warehousing being one of the most critical components of the supply chain, a provider who can offer manufacturers the most energy efficient supply chain solution is an attractive proposition and has a clear competitive advantage.

At Partner Logistics we developed the in-house Material Flow System (MFS) that amounts to over 90% of our warehouses functionality and provides key intelligence behind the warehouse performance. The MFS is regarded as one of the most advanced warehouse management systems available and features include automated truck loading and unloading to ensure maximum speed and efficiency, low bays to store stock ahead of the loading system in case of high bay malfunctions, 100% end-to-end electronic stock control and prevention of pallet queues by constantly monitoring stock levels and pallet movements.

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Employing these high levels of automation helps to increase the reliability of internal logistics processes and significantly reduces manual handling which maintains the quality of the products and aides in reducing the overall cost to the customer. Errors and mistakes are all but eliminated, as well as improving consistency and speed of service – all essential components when managing the smooth day-to-day running of any supply chain.

With the frozen food industry continuing to go from strength to strength, the role of automation throughout the supply chain is of increasing importance and deep freeze warehouses will need to continue to be technologically-driven in the future.

New and ongoing technological innovations are more accessible than ever and can drive up value in the supply chain, open up new opportunities and provide real-time data which can be used to devise a strategy that will address changing customer requirements and business goals.