SECTORS

The European Food&Beverage sector is going through a growth and innovation period in this last year. The first one is due to the increasing costumers’ interest in online food (linked to lockdown situation); in 2020 it is estimated that there was an increase of 140%. The second one, instead, is the effect of the first one. The explosion of sales of the first one has characterised a crisis of in place stores. Therefore, they have started to innovate their businesses.

Aviko is one of the four largest company all over the world regarding the processing of potatoes. The company was born in 1962 in Keppel (Netherlands) and it has been producing high-quality products for 50 years, expanding itself in 100 countries. The 2 million euros revenues allow the company to make specific investments, following the wave of Food&Beverage growth. It commissioned Automha with two automatic warehouses. The first one is situated in Holland, and it has been working since 2020 and the most recent one has been working since the first months of 2022 and is located in Belgium.

Problem

Aviko produces almost 800.000 tons of finite product to store in cold rooms to satisfy delivery conditions. However, the operation is quite expensive and not always efficient.

The first warehouse

For the warehouse situated in Steenderen in Holland, the company asked Automha to realise a self-supporting warehouse with a refrigerated temperature of -27°C. The pallets to store are 80×120 cm and 100×120 cm, with a maximum capacity of 40.000 load units.

A peculiarity of the installation is the possibility to manage 150 load units per hour in inbound and 300 units per hour in outbound at the same time.

Following Aviko’s requests, Automha studied a layout with an automatic robotic area linked to the warehouse, giving to Aviko the possibility to satisfy each request of the customers, creating multi-reference pallets.

The warehouse in Holland:

Localisation: Steenderen, Holland

Beginning: January 2021

Dimensions:

• Storage capacity: from 30.800 to 40.700 UdC
• UdC: pallet 800x1200mm and 1000x1200mm.
• Performance in / out: up to 150 UDC/h in inbound and 300 UDC/h in outbound
• Temperature: -27°C warehouse High bay, 4 zones of conveying
• Space management: self-supporting warehouse with 11 levels of storage in multi-depth; Expedition zone, Layer Picking zone.

Technology used:

• 33 Autosatmover
• 6 elevators, height 32 m
• 2 elevators, height 8 m
• 2 loops of RushMover with a total of 18 vehicles
• 2 robotic islands for the preparation of pallet mix
• 2 mini load/ stacker cranes, the automatic system of storage for containers or trays, used in the case of high flows of goods withdrawal with important weights
• 300 conveyors between roller conveyors, catenaries, rotary tables, and orthogonal transferors

To answer Aviko’s needs, Automha was charged itself of mechanical and electric project of the machines, production and installation and the warehouse software start-up, guaranteeing the cyclical requests and an optimal management of the warehouse.

The second request

The project of Poperinge in Belgium takes into consideration the processes built in 2018 in Holland. Once a model that could satisfy the company’s needs was made, the next step was to build a standard model that works and that excludes the risk of complications.

The new system inaugurated at the beginning of 2022 is larger and able to manage up to 50.000 pallets.

It is self-supporting as well and it can manage simultaneously up to 180 UDC/h in inbound and 280 UDC/h in outbound at -27°C in a rapid and precise way.

An Autosatmover with Supercap is installed on each storage level, for a total of 33 shuttles, useful for the automation of the storage in multi-depth of the pallet.

In the Poperinge of the warehouse a RushMover loop is present, a system for connecting all functional areas of the plant on which are installed 20 shuttles RushMover appointed by the system to feed the warehouse.

Moreover, an automatic warehouse of stacker cranes was built which contains 182 trays and performs the fundamental function of sheltering the mother pallets used for picking.

Advantages

By disposing of cold rooms, the system becomes more flexible; therefore, the processes are more efficient and logistic costs are lower.
The second objective was the one to lower the timing of parking incoming and outgoing pallets and thanks to Automha has been achieved.

The warehouse in Belgium

Localisation: Poperinge, Belgium

Beginning: end 2022

Dimensions:

• Warehouse dimension: 108 x 65m
• Storace capacity: from 40800 to 50000 UdC
• UdC: pallet 800×1280 mm h 2.500mm.
• UdC playload: 1300 kg
• Performance in / out: up to 180 UDC/h in inbound and 280 UDC/h in outbound
• Temperature: -27°C

Technology used:

• 33 Autosatmover
• 33 Supercap
• 1 Stacker crane