Dematic helped to achieve a 15% increase in production at Parmalat Lidcombe and will now build a high bay warehouse for Smith’s Snackfood.
PepsiCo’s Australian snacks division, The Smith’s Snackfood Company, has given Dematic an order to build a high bay warehouse at Smith’s Regency Park manufacturing facility in Adelaide.
The automated storage and retrieval system will consist of four new RapidStore Storage Retrieval Machines, 30m high double-deep pallet racking, pallet conveyors, automatic guided vehicles associated control systems, and Dematic’s Warehouse Control System.
“This high bay warehouse is another step in our ongoing relationship with Smith’s. The Smith’s order is the second ANZ high bay warehouse project to integrate Dematic’s new, RapidStore SRMs, in conjunction with Australian manufactured Colby racking systems,” commented David Rubie, Dematic’s manager of food and beverage.
The win comes shortly after Dematic's March announcement that its work with Honeywell at Parmalat’s Lidcombe facility had enabled the dairy producer to achieve a 15% improvement in litres per man hour.
Icon Integration and Dematic worked with Honeywell Scanning & Mobility to design and employ a new voice-directed smart SAP WMS solution for Parmalat. The new WMS solution and a Honeywell Vocollect voice technology solution replaced a paper-based picking system at Parmalat’s Lidcombe distribution centre in western Sydney.
“The Lidcombe DC is very important to our business as we service a number of high profile customers across a wide area, and it is imperative that our warehouse runs as effectively as possible in order to deliver perishable dairy goods fresh and on time,” explained Guy Romeo, national logistics transformation manager, Parmalat.
Parmalat had initially enlisted Dematic to investigate how technology could help it optimise its current processes.
“Dematic investigated a number of different technologies but determined that voice picking was the optimal solution,” explained Seth van Dijk, sales manager at Dematic.
Parmalat’s overall goal was to use its people more efficiently to improve overall warehouse efficiency. To achieve this, Parmalat needed to upgrade to a system that offered more visibility, so it was in a position to specify what tasks employees fulfilled at all times. Under the new WMS and voice solution Parmalat's workforce is completely visible.
Parmalat achieved productivity and safety improvements through Honeywell’s Vocollect voice solution’s “Hands-Free and Eyes-Free” qualities, which means employees no longer need to look down or put down papers and scanners to pick up a unit or crate of stock. The distribution centre is also better organised and stock is moving a lot more freely.
