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Carlsberg A/S, Copenhagen (Denmark)
Improved operating costs, order accuracy, quality and efficiency – all significant go-to-market benefits.
Creating logistics results: We’ve installed two automatic picking systems for Carlsberg breweries in Denmark. These are the core elements of their two new 36,000 square meter distribution centers in Taastrup and Fredericia. In each center every hour about 3,500 beverage cases, cartons, can trays and kegs are made up into mixed pallet loads for specific orders and delivered to customers and satellite distribution locations – cost-efficiently and with high order accuracy.
The challenge: The customer wanted to consolidate 17 regional distribution centers into 2 large centers (and a third smaller one) in order to reduce system inventory to the minimum and streamline operations. At the same time, the customer wanted to improve delivery quality (order accuracy) and make it possible to track and trace orders and product through the entire delivery chain, right up to the customer. Another requirement was maximum, reasonable automation of the goods handling and flow in the picking of over 120 different articles (SKU’s) in order to minimize the work of the order pickers who have to handle several tons of cases a day.
Additional requirements for the two new plants included speeding up order processing, greater efficiency along the entire supply chain including the processing of small order sizes and dealing with individual requirements. All this called for a compact logistics solution with state-of-the-art IT.
Our solution: As prime contractor and system integrator we planned and supplied two automatic picking systems (APS), complete with everything from the mechanical equipment to the IT systems, including the mixed pallet generating software.
At each DC there are 12 portal robots, a total of 800 meters of case conveyors, 500 meters of pallet conveyors, eight transfer vehicles and an automatic 5-aisle case warehouse (mini-load system) operating on an area of approximately 4,200 square meters.
Production pallets are brought to an APS induction point from a classic block stacked warehouse which also supplies complete production pallets for delivery. Each APS is divided functionally into five areas:
These five core functions are supported by additional transport systems for conveying entire production pallets to dispatch or to the manual slow running area in order to create a complete system for handling about 200 truck loads each day.
Intelligent Software
Our warehouse management system, WCS, plays a key role in ensuring fast and error-free handling of customer orders.
WCS firstly contains the material flow control system and communicates with the subordinate conveyor and robot control systems. Secondly, it is integrated with the existing SAP system at Carlsberg. The homogeneous integration of our solution in the SAP environment allows highly efficient working with minimum interfaces.
Another component of the solution is a special software tool for increasing the efficiency of order picking and distribution. On the basis of a precise knowledge of the Carlsberg products, the pallet generating software determines the optimum number and type of SKU’s on the dispatch pallets according to the particular customer orders. In other words, the mixed pallets are built mathematically before they are built physically. Predetermined, computer modeled dispatch pallets are then implemented by the picking robot. The route planning is then based on the known quantity and mix of the dispatch pallets thereby achieving the most efficient deployment of the delivery trucks. Thus, order processing, warehouse operations including order picking, and route planning are highly integrated.
User-friendly control dialogs with the WCS help operators to utilize the capacity of all areas efficiently and to maximize the total throughput.
Advantages for Carlsberg:
