In 2022, BS Handling Systems completed the design, manufacture and installation of pick-to-light conveyor lines at Mindful Chef’s distribution hub in Redditch. The success of the project led Mindful Chef to commission BS Handling Systems to deliver phase two of its development plans, an automated palletisation solution at the end of the pick-to-light lines.
“Phase one was designed to increase throughput performance and reduce error rates in the picking process,” explains Matthew Maxwell, head of operations at Mindful Chef. He continues, “With phase two, the key objectives were to reduce or remove manual handling operations at the end of the lines and further increase throughput speeds.”
Before phase one was completed, Mindful Chef had already started thinking about adding more automation to the end of the pick-to-light lines. With phase one the company achieved a throughput increase of around 30 percent. To cope with this increase it required two operators at the end of each line to manually lift the boxes off and palletise them prior to loading into a trailer for despatch.
Matthew Maxwell again, “As part of our due diligence we visited other sites within the Nestlé group to evaluate their palletising operations. The benefits of automating the palletisation became obvious and so we pushed ahead with phase two of the project. BS Handling Systems are really good to work with, they’re extremely knowledgeable and accommodating.”
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