Global Logistics and Supply Chain Strategies - June 2008 - (Page 45) tery wear on vehicles, due to extremely low temperature, is no longer a productivity issue in operating that freezer.” So much for the benefits. Here’s how the system works. Product coming off a manufacturing line is placed on a pallet and brought to the freezer. There it is unloaded and placed on pallet conveyor system at ambient temperature. “We scan a label associated with that pallet, put it in our inventory control database, then send it to a station that determines if it’s the size and weight it’s supposed to be,” Khodl says. “It’s rejected there if, for example, cases are missing.” Then the product is routed directly into the freezer, and on to a pick point for the storage retrieval system. Carrying two pallets at a time, the retrieval system delivers the product into the deep-lane storage operation. Khodl says that while Dematic has designed two-load handling devices for companies in Europe, where space limitation often is a major concern for manufacturers, the system built for JTM is a first in North America. “On one side of the aisle, JTM can store four pallets deep, and on the other side, it stores eight. It’s architected that way because JTM runs large volumes of the same SKU.” The inventory control system for the ASRS—what Dematic calls Staging Director—is then notified where the pallets are, and given all lot, product type or other information. When fulfilling orders, the inventory control system is directed to the oldest product in the freezer, retrieves it, brings it to a pick station, where it meets up with the conveyor system, and is routed out of the freezer to an assigned work station. “From our standpoint, it’s all about the cost to operate a high-density storage freezer versus a manually operated conventional storage freezer,” Khodl says. And among the cost savings an automated system can bring is labor, Khodl says. “We’ve eliminated the need for anyone but a maintenance person to ever go in that freezer.” No more refrigerator doors left open. To access this article online, visit The Digital Edition at www.SupplyChainBrain.com. Reduce the Footprint, Reduce the Energy Bill High-bay accessibility is a major benefit for a company switching from a manual to an ASRS cold storage facility. In a typical cold storage warehouse where forklifts are used, the lift’s maximum reach is 14 to 16 feet, allowing about four vertical pallet positions for a maximum 20-foot rack height. With an ASRS facility, it is common to have as many as 12 vertical pallet positions on 50-foot racks. In a non-freezer warehouse this is an important efficiency factor in footprint consolidation. In a cold storage warehouse, the footprint reduction becomes an absolutely critical factor in energy savings, according to Mike Khodl, director of supply chain services for Dematic North America. In effect, cold storage warehouses are giant insulated freezers which extract heat to produce a cold environment. The removal of heat is expensive--significantly more than what it takes to put heat into a space. But just like heating a space, where the majority of heat is lost through the roof, the same is true with freezers, but here it is the cold that is lost. So, the smaller the footprint, the more efficient the energy use. A cold storage facility with an ASRS could reduce energy costs to one-third of that needed for a manual facility, according to Dematic officials. “Every three or four years, I was building a new freezer, but it is terribly expensive to build and operate.” — Joe Maas of J.T.M. Food Group Resource Link Dematic North America, www.dematic.us www.SupplyChainBrain.com GLOBAL LOGISTICS & SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES 45 http://www.SupplyChainBrain.com http://www.dematic.us http://www.SupplyChainBrain.com
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