Dreamfield, the new brand recently unveiled by Cimcorp, is designed to enhance efficiency, profitability and sustainability in grocery retail distribution.
Comprising advanced automation technologies – from robotic systems and autonomous vehicles to conveyors, palletizers and intelligent software – Dreamfield provides a comprehensive suite of tools to streamline warehouse and distribution operations. An end-to-end, modular solution, Dreamfield is tailored to the needs of grocery retail, including the fresh food, liquid dairy, bakery and beverage sectors.
“With Dreamfield, we offer our customers increased accuracy, faster order fulfilment and enhanced inventory management,” explains Kai Tuomisaari, Vice President of Corporate Sales at Cimcorp Group. “This not only boosts their productivity but also ensures they can meet customer demands with greater reliability. In this way, Dreamfield provides a strategic advantage that empowers our customers to stay ahead in a highly competitive market.”
Speed and freshness
Quality and freshness are key requirements for grocery consumers. With Cimcorp’s automated solutions, grocery retailers are able to dramatically reduce delivery times from field to store. This means that produce is fresher on arrival and therefore benefits from a longer shelf life. For example, the Spanish supermarket giant, Mercadona has been able to deliver perishable products from field to store in under 24 hours with the help of Cimcorp’s automation. By optimising material flows, Mercadona has not only extended shelf life and enhanced the customer experience, but also reduced food waste.
Mitigating labour issues
Automation can also alleviate ergonomic and labour issues, enabling operations to run in a faster and safer way. Labour shortages in many markets mean employees in manual warehouses need to work harder and faster to fulfil orders accurately and on time, posing ergonomic hazards and risk of injury. “This is especially true of fresh produce distribution,” says Kai Tuomisaari, “where crates can weigh up to 20 kilos. With Dreamfield, automation takes care of the heavy lifting, leading to a safer and more productive work environment.” Human intervention is limited to supervising operations, order release (although this can also be automated), sequence selection for order picking, transport planning, management of product shortages and clearing of the storage area for cleaning or maintenance.
This easing of labour availability issues is one of the many benefits enjoyed by Rewe Group, one of Germany’s leading food retailers, at its logistics centre in Oranienburg. By alleviating the physical demands on warehouse workers, automation has made it easier for Rewe to recruit and retain personnel. Another example is provided by Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe Inc, a global bread and roll manufacturer located in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. By installing automation from Cimcorp, the business has been able to reduce its workforce hours by 30 per cent. Of course, robotic technology does not have to be applied as a fully integrated, automated handling system; it may also be delivered as an ‘island’ of automation within a predominantly manual facility.
Handling peaks with ease
The gantry robots at the heart of Dreamfield combine buffer storage and fulfilment in one highly flexible operation that can handle large volumes with ease. For example, automation from Cimcorp at The Kroger Co.’s milk plant in Denver, Colorado, is designed to process more than 30,000 crates per day. Cimcorp’s technology is also adaptable to seasonal changes in demand. A case in point is the solution for Olvi, one of the leading beverage producers in Finland and the Baltic region. In a collaboration spanning almost 20 years, Cimcorp has helped Olvi to cope with fluctuating order volumes. The brewing industry is notorious for dramatic swings in demand between seasons – with the potential to cause bottlenecks in production and distribution on peak days – but the automation mitigates these risks for Olvi.
Traceability and food safety
Traceability is the key to ensuring food safety. With real-time monitoring and comprehensive computer control of material flows through its Warehouse Management System, Cimcorp helps food suppliers to deal quickly and effectively with product recall scenarios to prevent affected food from landing on the plates of consumers. Of course, the software also ensures an accurate first-in-first-out (FIFO) operation. For example, Cimcorp’s software enables Kwik Trip to manage the output of its baking facility in La Crosse, Wisconsin, to supply up to 30 different types of fresh baked goods daily to over 700 locations throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.
Sustainability in action
Intralogistics automation can also enable a greener supply chain. Cimcorp’s systems have helped Alimerka, a supermarket chain in northern Spain, to reduce cardboard packaging and increase efficiency. Enhanced inventory management and improved distribution help to reduce both fresh-produce wastage and carbon footprint. In particular, intelligent software enables the loading of delivery vehicles to be optimised, leading to fewer trucks and lower CO2 emissions. Gantry robot technology is also more sustainable than many comparable storage systems. With their structure manufactured from aluminium, the robots are lightweight and therefore consume less energy. They also feature regenerative braking, enabling them to feed back approximately 30% of energy to the power grid. Another feature that makes the robots green is the fact that they can handle multiple crates simultaneously, instead of just one – in fact, they can move stacks up to 2.5 metres tall, with a maximum load of 250 kg – resulting in energy savings through fewer movements.
High hygiene standards
As the core of storage in Dreamfield solutions is located on the floor, without the need for any racking, areas can easily be cleared of crates by the robots to facilitate cleaning of the floor. This helps to maintain the hygiene standards required in food-handling environments.
Transforming food retail
By simplifying material flows and improving efficiency, Cimcorp has created a unique formula for success in grocery retail distribution, enabling customers to focus on their core business. Working with precision and speed, automated systems reduce errors, lead times and the risk of delays, thereby increasing accuracy, reliability and customer satisfaction. Successful collaboration with a number of leading brands demonstrates the potential of Dreamfield to revolutionise the food supply chain and deliver sustainable growth. As well as Mercadona, Rewe and Alimerka, grocery retail customers include the German supermarket chains, Netto and Edeka. Customers in the bakery industry include not only Kwik Trip and Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe, Inc, but also Fazer and the specialist 3PL, Penske Logistics. In the dairy sector, in addition to Kroger, Cimcorp has supplied automation to Arla, Synlait and Valio.
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