Talking about the automatic cold storage system

JTM Foods Inc. is a specialty food processing company based in Harrison, Ohio, which offers a wide range of frozen foods to schools, supermarkets, restaurants, and the military. Previously, the company had always felt that its manually operated freezer operations were inefficient, and that the frequent entry and exit of forklifts into the cold storage caused considerable cost. By replacing the original manual cold storage with an automated stereo library, JTM not only saves high operating costs, but also greatly increases operational efficiency, greatly reduces error rates, and greatly improves customer service levels.

Intractable problems in manual cold storage

Founded in 1960, JTM was originally a retail butcher's shop in Cincinnati, and has long used a manually operated freezer. As the company began to provide food processing services, the volume of business maintained a double-digit growth, so every three to four years, JTM needs to add a new cold storage. Joe Maas, vice president of corporate operations, knows that building a cold storage is costly and extremely expensive.

There are many reasons for the loss of energy in the cold storage. The most important one is that in order to allow the operator to drive the forklift into and out of the cold storage, a particularly large warehouse door must be set up. Every time you enter or leave the warehouse, the operator delivers not only the pallets full of cargo, but also the cash lost due to the leakage of cold air.

In fact, JTM's cash loss is not limited to this. In the freezer, forklifts, trucks, and other manually operated equipment have a higher rate of damage to the shelves and products than the normal temperature library. At the same time, in the environment below zero, the maintenance cost of the equipment, especially the maintenance cost of the battery-powered equipment, is also greatly increased. In addition, since the operator cannot continue to work in a low temperature environment, it is necessary to stay outside the warehouse for 20 minutes every hour, so work efficiency is greatly limited.

Solution - using automated stereo cold storage

The above problems have always caused a lot of trouble for JTM. Until one day, a business partner of JTM recommended that it use an automated warehouse system to replace the cold storage of the manual mode. After investigating automated code placement, inventory and pick-up systems, JTM finally reached a cooperation agreement with Dematic to build an automated stereo cold storage. Since then, the company has changed a lot.

“It has been proven that the use of an automated cold storage system can eliminate the inefficiencies inherent in manual operation of cold storage, high equipment and product breakage rates, and high energy consumption.”

The advantages of automated cold storage

The new cold storage rises from the parking lot of the JIM processing plant. This green building is 85 feet (about 26 meters) high. Its built and used has brought a lot of obvious benefits to JTM: compared with the previous manual operation mode. , inventory and order fulfillment accuracy rate reached nearly 100%, warehouse workers reduced by 75%, product and warehouse damage is gone, and energy consumption due to cold air leakage is also significantly reduced, down 50%-66 %.

In fact, in addition to the energy loss caused by opening and closing the door, the other two problems encountered by the cold storage can not be ignored, namely, moisture infiltration and loss of energy through the roof. This is because when defrosting a freezing system that is frosted by moisture infiltration, a part of the energy is lost, and the energy is directly lost through the roof.

Complete elimination of moisture infiltration is not possible, but the new ASRS system minimizes moisture infiltration. Defrost is done every day in the manual warehouse system, but now it is completely unnecessary. Because in order to facilitate the forklift truck entering and leaving the warehouse, the size of the door is 8x10 feet (about 2.4~3 meters), and the workers can't always close the door properly, so a lot of moisture will flow into the cold storage every time the door is opened and closed. In turn, moisture is generated. Moisture condenses on the coil, which is especially severe in summer, and the removal of moisture requires a certain cost. Moisture can be eliminated by heating, but at the same time hot air is blown into the cold storage, which is very bad for cold storage.

The size of the library door of ASRS is much smaller than that of the original library door, and the speed of the switch is very fast when the cargo door passes, effectively avoiding the large amount of moisture entering the cold storage. In addition, when using a manual system, the operator typically has to freeze his workbench to avoid moisture build-up. This is no longer necessary now.

As for the problem of energy loss in the roof of the cold storage, the core is to minimize the size of the roof. Obviously, the smaller the roof area, the better the energy saving effect. Maas said: "You must hope that the roof area should be reduced as much as possible with respect to the storage space per unit area. With the ASRS system, this can certainly be done because the height of the warehouse can be increased to make the room corresponding to the space per unit area. The top area is the smallest."

JTM's new cold storage is 85 feet (about 26 meters) high, and the storage capacity is much larger than the old 24 ft (about 7.5 meters) old cold storage, while the old cold storage has a floor space equivalent to 3.5 times the new warehouse. Because of the manual use of cold storage in the past, at least two 12-foot (about 3.5 meters) wide passages were required to allow forklifts or other wheeled tools to pass. The passage cannot store the goods, but it also needs to be cooled, so it is a space that is useless and costs money. Of course, the less the better. The new cold storage uses a deep stacking storage system with only one 5 foot (about 1.5 meters) wide channel. In fact, the width of the JTM new cold storage is only equivalent to the width of the channel used to manually operate the cold storage.

More critically, the automatic pick-up system also ensures that goods that are first stored in the warehouse are first removed and shipped.

System integrator Dematic has subdivided the food industry into two parts: one is food and beverage production, ie finished product manufacturing, just like JTM's business; the other is food retailing and wholesale, which provides distribution services for retailers. Manufacturing companies may have to store a large number of products, but deal with multiple pallets of the same product; wholesale and retail distribution companies usually place a variety of goods on the pallet. The business models of manufacturing companies and distribution companies vary widely, and these differences are a key factor in determining the degree of automation and system selection for their warehouses.

Through a lot of practice, Dematic knows the needs and challenges of food and beverage manufacturers and has the ability to provide logistics systems that meet their needs. Mike Khodl, Director of Supply Chain Services at Dematic, understands the problems Maas has encountered. For example, according to state law, it is not uncommon for employees to stay outside the cold storage for 20 minutes per hour. Usually, this is understandable, but in fact it sacrifices efficiency. In addition, problems such as low order fulfillment accuracy and damage to property such as goods and equipment should also be avoided.

Khodl believes that improving order fulfillment accuracy is a key driver for companies to adopt automated systems, because in manual systems, especially in low-temperature environments, it is likely that employees will not be able to pick up the goods accurately as needed. If the company produces 20 trays of food stored in a cold storage, when using manual work, there is no guarantee that the employee will take out the first produced goods. The use of an automated system ensures this, and the system can first take out the first pallets, pick the required ones, and then put them back.

At the same time, there is no need to worry about the damage of goods and equipment. In the past, a large number of manually driven mechanical handling vehicles often lost operational efficiency due to collisions with the shelves. Now, not only does shelf and equipment damage occur, JTM has also withdrawn all electric handling equipment. The vehicle battery wear caused by ultra-low temperature has reduced the working efficiency of the vehicle, and it is no longer a concern of the JTM cold storage.

Because of this, Maas is very satisfied with the effects brought about by the introduction of automation systems.

“The smaller the footprint, the higher the energy usage rate. According to the analysis of Dematic system planning experts, the energy consumed by the automated stereo cold storage has dropped significantly, which is only one-third of the energy consumption of the manual cold storage.”

to sum up

Mike Khodl, Director of North American Supply Chain Services at Dematic, summarized the advantages of the company's transition from manual operation to automated three-dimensional cold storage. The main advantages are: the use of overhead storage to increase the storage capacity of a limited footprint. Usually, in a cold storage using a forklift, since the maximum lifting height of the fork is 14 to 16 feet (about 4.3 to 4.8 meters), the shelf can only be up to 20 feet (about 6 meters) high, and can be stored vertically. Tray. With the introduction of a stereo library system, up to 12 pallets can be accommodated vertically on shelves up to 50 feet (about 15 meters). For the ambient temperature library, this is an effective means of saving floor space. For cold storage, reducing the footprint is critical to energy efficiency.

Because the cold storage is a huge insulated freezer, the heat is extracted to create a cold environment. De-heating for a space is very expensive, much higher than the cost of heating a space. Just like heating a space, most of the heat is lost through the roof, as is the cold storage. The difference is that the cold storage loses air. Therefore, the smaller the floor space, the higher the energy usage rate. According to the research and analysis of Dematic system planning experts, the energy consumed by the automated stereo cold storage has dropped drastically, which is only one-third of the energy consumption of the manual operation of cold storage.