Honeywell (NYSE: HON) announced that it has installed three liquid-cooled chillers at the York distribution centre of global food giant Nestlé, whose popular brands include Nescafé, Kit Kat, Aero, Smarties, and Shreddies.
The 136,000 square-foot distribution centre is on the same site as the Nestlé York production facility, one of the world’s largest confectionery factories. The distribution centre consists of a fully automated high bay with six cranes and a conventional storage and picking hall. In total the distribution centre holds up to 33,000 pallets with a typical value in excess of £25 million.
Temperature and humidity in the distribution centre need to be controlled to a very precise specification to preserve the quality of Nestlé’s products. Under the project, Honeywell replaced the centre’s aging chillers with three 5-stage propane alternatives that perform more efficiently, offer more accurate temperature control and are easier to monitor.
“The new chillers are much more efficient at maintaining temperatures and were a cheaper alternative to other options for Nestlé,” said Barry Hetherington, business development manager for Honeywell Building Solutions. “The lower cost of our solution enabled Nestlé to make other investments to improving the plant room.”
In 2006 Honeywell’s maintenance and support for the Nestlé site were expanded to include the warehouse facility. The installation of Honeywell’s EBI building management system at that time improved control significantly and paid for itself within the first year of operation, which has helped the site reduce its energy consumption by nearly half.
“The installation of the new chillers, combined with the improvement measures we are making in other areas of our control regime, will enable us to further reduce our costs and lessen our impact on the environment,” said Paul Roberts, customer logistics engineering manager for Nestlé UK&I. “It is vital to maintain product quality throughout the supply chain and, within the distribution centre, that means close control of temperature and humidity – in as an environmentally friendly way as possible.”
Honeywell
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