SECTORS

Autosat for semi-automatic pallet storage

Murphy & Son Ltd was established in 1887. Over the years, Murphy has consolidated its experience not only as a brewery but also as an expert in the production and refining techniques of beer and beverages in general.

With more than one hundred years of history, it has acquired the technical skills and know-how necessary to obtain the best possible results in the production process of beer and other beverages, gaining the trust of customers all over the world.

The dedication to customer service is a basic element of the success of Murphy & Son, which also boasts products of a wide range and of high quality that together make it the industry leader.

Problem

Following continued growth, Murphy & Son needed to increase capacity for its finished goods, stored in several ways, whether in intermediate bulk containers (IBC), individual barrels, or small boxed items stored on traditional pallets. The company wanted to take advantage of an existing plant in Nottingham, optimizing its storage capacity.

Different kinds of pallets and working within an existing site were therefore the two starting conditions to be submitted to the potential supplier.

Murphy & Son turned to Sec Storage, the UK leader in the design, supply, and installation of pallet racking systems in all shapes, sizes, and configurations.

Sec storage, following a detailed analysis of the building that was supposed to house the new warehouse and the load units stored in it, designed the best solution for Murphy & Son, moving towards the realization of a semi-automatic storage system for multi-depth pallets, which was implemented with the use of Automha’s Autosat shuttle.

Solution

Sec storage and the customer’s choice fell on Automha’s Autosat satellite for several reasons. Autosat fully responded to the customer’s need to maximize storage capacity within the pre-existing building. Automha’s satellite is in fact ideal for semi-automatic storage of multi-depth pallets inside a traditional drive-in shelf and guarantees maximum exploitation of the warehouse’s volume. In the Murphy & Son warehouse, the Autosat shuttle is loaded onto the required lane by a forklift truck and once it has started, it runs through the lane until it reaches the first available pallet, using FIFO logic.

This greatly reduces the presence of forklift operators in the warehouse, since in this scenario the operator only needs to worry about loading the pallet onto the shuttle which then automatically moves along the shelves. In addition to simple storage, Autosat guarantees several important functions of reordering, counting, anti-collision, manual management, and many others. Thanks to this multi-depth and high-density storage solution, Murphy & Son is now able to reach a storage capacity of more than 280 pallets, in a space of over 1500sqm.

Advantages

“We were looking to optimize our new chilled warehouse space and we all agreed that the shuttle system with its versatility would be our best option” comments John Orson, Nottingham site engineering manager.

Murphy & Son’s new warehouse and storage solutions provide them with a highly space-optimized and operationally efficient storage system, with the ability to further increase productivity by implementing additional shuttles, when the need arises or when season demand dictates.