Second FAST Picking solution from KNAPP goes live

One of ten co-operatives within the Migros Group, Migros Zürich is Switzerland’s second largest retail company with a network of 104 supermarkets, 25 specialist stores, 47 restaurants and 11 retail partners. Every day at the co-operative’s DC near Zurich, up to 1,400 different SKUs of dairy, convenience and catering products – including baked goods – arrive on site and are assembled for delivery to around 150 stores. Beat Erb, head of engineering at Migros Zürich, is delighted to be working with KNAPP again: “Our experience with the first automatic picking solution for the fruit and vegetable range was so positive that we decided to implement another KNAPP solution.”

Heavy handling units 

Fresh products usually arrive on site in standardised Migros crates or in foldable crates from an external pool. These units tend to be heavy, so manual picking would place a great deal of physical strain on employees. Automatic processing of the crates not only avoids this but also ensures highly economical and accurate picking.

KNAPP’s FAST – Fully Automated Standard Tray – Picking system is the ideal solution for automatic, high-performance picking of standard handling units. Its core components are fully automatic depalletising and palletising machines, and the OSR Shuttle storage system. In a special splitting procedure carried out during depalletisation, store-ready loadsare created directly from the incoming original pallets for delivery to shops. The remaining quantities of stock are depalletised and loaded into crates for buffer storage in the OSR Shuttle system. With 12 rack lines and 7 levels, the OSR Shuttle offers space-efficient storage for goods in around 12,500 locations. Prior to dispatch, the crates are retrieved and conveyed in the correct sequence to the high-performance stacking machines. 

KNAPP’s KiSoft Pack Master software calculates the optimal pallet profile so that the loads are formed automatically in a shop-friendly manner. After automatic palletising, completed loads are stretch-wrapped, labelled and conveyed on KNAPP’s Powerline pallet conveyor to the dispatch area. The system is designed to process 90,000 handling units per day within a temperature range of 1 to 4 deg C. The solution went live in January and Migros is very pleased with it: 

“The KNAPP automation technology ensures economical and on-time delivery,” says Beat Erb.

A video of the FAST Picking solution at Migros is available on the YouTube channel of KNAPP AG.