Pallet logistics systems supplier CSi has recently completed a £3.7m project to design and install an automated sortation and palletising system for Walkers Snacks’ factory in Coventry. It has replaced the former manual handling process and now works round the clock with only three staff, helping to dispatch products to Walkers Distribution Centres in the East Midlands and North. Operational since late 2007, the system is handling around 800 pallets per day of Walkers’ snack brands including Doritos, Monster Munch, Quavers and Squares. CSi has already worked on similar successful projects for Walkers in Belgium and Spain, and was able to use its experience and expertise to advantage for the Coventry assignment.
Cartons containing products from any one of 26 SKUs arrive at random from Walkers production at the rate of around 60 per minute, on six conveyors. They range in size from 600mm x 400mm to 400mm x 300mm and 300mm x 250mm, illustrating CSi’s ability to cope with a variety of mixed shapes and sizes of cartons, boxes and totes.
One of the factors affecting accumulation conveyors is preventing line pressure from damaging or splitting light-weight cartons; the CSi design, including a buffer deck with an advanced break and release mechanism, ensures that even flimsy containers are handled with care.
As each carton enters the system, scanners read the bar code for allocating and directing to one of 26 buffer conveyor lanes, ranged on three levels on an upper mezzanine floor. Two CSi C5000Ti high-speed palletisers build up complete pallets of a single SKU, which are then lowered to the ground floor for automatic shrink-wrapping and collection by fork truck. A typical pallet load will hold around 80 cartons and may well be up to 2m high.
The system is managed using CSi’s own software with a SCADA visual presentation of the process, so management can view the operational status at any time.
Walkers’ Engineering Manager Richie Hewitt explained the reasoning behind the decision to invest in the new system and expressed his satisfaction at the result. “The first few months have proved very successful and as an additional benefit, the quality of the cartons we ship has been improved. During the planning stage we recognised that to operate reliably any automated system needs good quality cartons, which led us to review and improve the quality of our packaging. It helps the palletisers to make a neater load which once shrink-wrapped, provides a cleaner, more efficient unit for handling and shipment.”
He continued: “The system is located on a mezzanine floor above the dispatch area – a decision that helped us make better use of the available space. However it made the installation process far more demanding, as the CSi team had to install a highly complex system including the mezzanine steelwork without disrupting the packing and dispatch process below, during a near 12-month schedule. It is to their credit that with co-operation from all involved, they not only did so but also managed to complete on time and within budget.”
CSi’s Phil Griffiths commented: ” With increasingly stringent legislation controlling the use of manual labour and pressure to improve productivity, systems such as this provide an increasingly attractive and cost-effective solution – often providing a capital pay-back period of only a couple years.”
CSi
Tel: 01244 341298
Email: philgriffiths@csiweb.nl
www.csiweb.nl
Comments are closed.