Pallet system automation is necessary for the modern business climate for all warehouses. Discover our advanced pallet transfer system for pallet exchanging.
Pallet system is also equally effective in flat, high-flat, or even high-bay warehouses, which can range in height from about 6 meters to a maximum of 45 meters.
Warehousing with automated pallet systems can deliver fast, safe, and also resource-efficient material flows.
Automation in the food Industries with pallet systems
Plenty of automation is already happening in various food distribution activities where a need exists to adapt to changes in the production line and retailing.
The following are 3 ways we can see automation is going to evolve with the food supply chain:
1. MFC-ready distribution
Most food distribution system has already started incorporating robots and artificial intelligence for more efficient store replenishment that can help create aisle-ready pallets to offer more efficient restocking.
In this evolution process, the next stage is going to be to produce MFC (Micro Fulfillment Center) ready bins that can help enable more efficient automation replenishment.
As of now, the process involves unpacking cartons at the MFC and then placed in bins. This can be a difficult process to load into the MFC automation system as there are space constraints in MFC, which can add to the cost of operation.
Here there is a possibility of implementing automation and reducing MFC costs with the help of centralizing all these processes at the DC.
For producing automation-ready bins at the DC, shuttle systems can be thought of, so that they can eliminate any need for unpacking and loading bins at the MFC.
Based on current inventory levels, the DC may send automation-ready bins to each MFC thanks to software communication between the MFCs and DC.
2. Urban distribution
In cities where population growth is very high, the food distribution process can be challenging due to various regulations and traffic congestion. As a result, it can limit delivery frequency, locations, and also times.
Therefore, a need for automated urban distribution centers exists that can serve as a kind of bridge between DCs, urban retail locations, and also consumers.
All these urban DCs will also need to be more space efficient like vertical farms so that it is possible to make maximum use of real estate which is not only too expensive but also limited.
To achieve this, pallet system automation is the answer. Also, there exists the possibility to use compact containerized automation modules for creating flexible and rapid urban distribution centers which are tailored to the needs of specific markets.
3. Efficient cold storage with pallet systems
To meet the food needs of the rapidly growing population, cold storage can be instrumental. Pallet system Automation can support more vertical cold storage which in combination with sophisticated strategies for energy management can help in achieving greater energy efficiency within these environment.
Automation will therefore be critical in helping cold chain warehouses to meet the requirements of labor as automated AS/RS systems can protect employees to work in harsh and sub-zero temperatures.
Automated pallet system for warehouses can be universal and they have already proven their utility in almost every available sector, besides the food and beverage industry.
The basic logistic objective of these automated pallet warehouses is to obtain efficient processes as well as maximum system availability. Particularly in the food and beverage sector, to meet the latest legal requirements and also consumer trends, where the security of supply is also predominantly important.
This includes both the requirement for the traceability of products from farm to fork and trends toward convenience and organic items.
The advantages offered by automated pallet systems management
Today, we can see a lot of automation that is getting introduced all across various warehouses already. Any warehouses that are going to come up which can handle high-volume items and products where more extensive use of automated pallet system will be introduced.
Although the present-day high-volume warehouses are already making use of robotic palletizing and depalletizing in their lines and pallet shuttles only, not much else.
Those warehouses that are smaller in size may deal with a very small volume of items and they may make minimal use of such automated systems, or even may not use any automation at all.
Increasing the concept of automated pallet management that is used in a warehouse can yield many advantages, even if it can only be improving the WMS (Warehouse Management System) software for better coordination of pallets across different types of automated systems.
Some of the advantages of automated pallet systems:
1. Increased accuracy
No automated systems will ever forget their instructions, get confused, or cut any corners. One can place pallet loads in their specified locations with much greater efficiency, and all these locations can easily be stored and tracked as and when they change.
So, picking materials can proceed much more quickly and efficiently than before.
2. Improved throughput
Greater accuracy on intake and the ability to pull pallets more quickly from inventory can result in an increase in the flow of product speed throughout the warehouse.
3. Storage maximization
Another biggest advantage of pallet automation is that this kind of automated system can easily fit into any smaller area than any personnel and equipment.
This will allow warehouses to maximize their available internal vertical and horizontal space for storing products.
4. Reduced labor
One of the most obvious benefits of automated pallet management is the manpower reduction that is needed to handle, move, and otherwise manage pallets.
This can also offer an additional side benefit of improving the safety of employees because employees will be handling less heavy equipment and materials.
However, pallets are considered the standard shipping platform to carry food, consumer packaged goods, and many other consumer durables. Because of this, a great deal of automation in the warehouse can take place, which may also consider automated pallet system management.
What cost savings you can achieve through strong and automated pallet system will depend to a large extent on the size and type of pallets.
