SECTORS

Automatic food warehouse: An increase in space and reduction in management times.

Problem

Founded in 1984, Pedon Spa is a company operating in the foodstuffs sector either with its own-brand products or private labels in grocery store chains. They are known for a broad range of legumes, dried mushrooms, and ingredients for desserts and bakery items (also gluten-free) sold all over the world. As a company policy, the Pedon products are 100% NO GMO, without preservatives, additives, and dyestuffs. All the production stages are carried out under the control of the Quality Dept. to guarantee the quality, safety, and excellent-tasting products that contribute towards a nutritionally balanced diet.

These controls are also aimed at protecting the environment. The desire to maintain traceability of the whole production chain pushed Pedon to turn to Automha for the creation of an automatic warehouse for their packaging sector. The warehouse was previously placed close to the production area and was managed with simple pallet rack shelving. Previously, the increasingly urgent need to expand the space of the production area led Pedon to entrust a part of the packaging stock to an outside company: acquiring space but losing the complete management of their codes. Then they decided to look for a completely new automatic solution.

Solution

Enter Automha, which proposed a self-supporting warehouse at ambient temperature, adjoining and communicating with the existing structure. The warehouse created is composed of:

• 1 input station for pallets
• 1 output station for pallets
• 1 picking/refilling bay equipped with a lifting platform for pallet management at various heights
• 1 shuttle to the ground for conveying pallets from 60  cycles combined/h
• 2 single-column stacker cranes equipped with telescopic forks for two-level storage; 57 cycles combined/h.

The pallets managed in the warehouse have 4 different heights and weights. The storage capacity of the warehouse is 3300 pallet locations, managed with FIFO logic. The selective type of stock made it almost mandatory to choose a solution with a stacker crane, which is best suited for highly diversified products.

Advantages

The solution created enables the internal management of all the deposits of packaging and their respective codes; the internal handling practices are carried out in the form of goods moving towards the operator and not the other way around, significantly increasing the efficiency and accuracy of the warehouse.

The Automha project has fully respected the customer’s requirements, increased the available space, and shortened management time.

The Automha team is extremely satisfied with the collaboration with Pedon, a symbol of Made in Italy quality.