Automated picking systems designed to support beverage applications are multiplying in number, variety and scope today, just as interest among beverage distributors in applying some form of mechanized product handling to their operations is gaining ground.

 It’s nice to have options, but more choices also makes the process of deciding whether or when to mechanize all or some of a distributor’s operations, and how to select the right system, more complex. Beverage World offers some criteria companies should consider when evaluating whether to automate, and which particular system to choose to best fit their specific operation and objectives.

Are we big enough to automate?
Like so many things in life, the answer can be, that depends. “Probably the biggest misconception is that you have to be really big to do any kind of automation, like at least 10 million cases a year,” notes Jeff Stingel, vice president of sales for Vertique, Inc. “Last year our systems shipped some 70 million cases, half by distributors moving less than five million cases annually.”

HK Systems focuses on higher end installations, notes Lonnie Watkins, account representative for HK’s Food and Beverage Center of Excellence. It recently developed a fully automated beverage warehouse system designed to move 6.5 million cases a year with just four full-time people per shift.

Watkins suggests companies can take a phased approach to automation, adding modules gradually as they grow.

“Any company that’s running in the million-plus case range annually is a candidate to consider warehouse automation from the software side, by installing a warehouse management system with radio frequency (RF) receiving and putaway and some kind of pallet building software, that can tell people where to put product, when to retrieve it, and how to build pallets to fill orders,” he says.

Phase two for many companies might be an automated layer picking system to build partial pallets in layer quantities, while phase three could be a case picking system “to allow them to sequentially pull cases to top off those pallets,” Watkins adds.

For a full-blown, completely automated warehouse involving some combination of automatic storage and retrievel (AS/RS), plus automated layer and case picking, like HK’s recently developed Case-A-Matic Case Storage & Sequencing System, a company would generally need to be doing at least 7 to 8 million cases annually to expect a five-year return on investment, Watkins comments.

John Hinchey, vice president of sales for Westfalia Technologies, Inc., says the company and its clients often look at other factors than just case volume to determine suitability.

“Typically when an operation is running more than five or six days a week, two shifts a day, we find those companies become interested in automation,” he observes.

Is it worth installing an automated case picking system if the rest of the operation is still manual?
Again, it depends on the characteristics of each specific business. SKU counts, order sizes and characteristics, the specific mix of fast and slow movers, the ratio of bulk to side-load deliveries and other factors play a role in determining what specific automated configurations would generate the greatest efficiencies in any given operation.
Several of Vertique’s customers use just its case pick system, which works “more or less like a giant vending machine,” notes Stingel. “It stores cases vertically, and dispenses them at the bottom in the proper sequence for building pallets by load and by stop.”

Dynamic Logistics Systems USA’s order release module is basically a “flow rack that can be automatically filled and automatically ejects cases in the particular sequence required to build pallets. What’s unique,” says Bas Hollander, COO for DLS’ US office, “is our method of driving the lanes, which allows for longer lanes, or larger buffers that don’t have to be replenished as often, which is important for operations with lots of high-velocity items, like beverage.”
For some distributors, other forms of automation may make better sense, instead of or in conjunction with automated case selection.

Westfalia can customize solutions to meet a broad range of needs and business characteristics. For Minneapolis, Minn., USA-based Premium Waters, Inc., it designed a system that ties directly into the discharge of its filling lines, automatically printing and applying labels to the palletized, wrapped product and conveying pallet loads to deep-lane, high-density storage racks, from which they are retrieved automatically and transferred to the proper loading station at each dock door.

While high-rise AS/RS warehouses may offer the most efficient design for some operations, many automated systems can be installed in existing, conventional height warehouses and still offer considerable advantages in storage density by incorporating multi-pallet deep flow-through or other racking that requires less space than used by manual pick operations.

From Beverage World March 15, 2008