Wipro Ferretto
 

Texel Cooperativa Società Agricola transforms its warehouse into an Industry 4.0 warehouse

Texel, a member company of the VIP consortium (Association of Fruit and Vegetable Cooperatives of Val Venosta), a global distributor of apples, relied on the Wipro Ferretto to optimize the entire finished product storage and shipping process, shifting from manual handling to completely automated organization.

Customer: Texel Cooperativa Società Agricola
Sector: Food - Apple distributor
Location: Naturno (BZ) - Italy

Texel's needs
Established in 1977, Texel Cooperativa Società Agricola is a member company of the VIP Consortium (Association of Fruit and Vegetable Cooperatives of Val Venosta) which produces about 6,900 tons of apples, pears and apricots a year by its 325 members. Until the recent past the company managed its warehouse "manually": pallets were stored on the ground and handled by forklifts including for the loading of the trucks. In particular, this system made the management of flows difficult and unsafe, both for personnel and for goods.


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Thus it became clear to Texel that the entire operational management needed to be revised by automating processes, through a solution that would facilitate the increased speed of order preparation, adequately respond to the increasingly just-in-time requests of customers, and guarantee the proper preservation of apples until they are shipped. The request was therefore not just the reorganization of the space: Texel wanted a new system to increase the safety of personnel, reduce handling operations using forklifts, and improve the control of stock, with full traceability and reduction of errors.

The Texel fruit and vegetable cooperative of the Val Venosta Consortium chose to “revolutionize” its logistics with a self-supporting, temperature-controlled automatic storage system. The structure, designed and built by the Wipro Ferretto, made it possible to efficiently manage different types of pallets, to optimize space, and reduce shipment preparation time. In the surface of 900-plus square meters there are now more than 1200 pallet spaces.

The Wipro Ferretto responded to Texel's requests with a self-supporting automatic storage system for the storage of pallets of finished products in a +3°C cold room. The new structure is able to manage pallets coming from the packaging lines, store them in the storage system, and prepare shipments on the loading docks. The 4 load level storage system is based on seismic-resistant multi-depth pallet racking. Pallet picking and placing operations are managed by means of 8 automatic shuttles while a circuit consisting of 6 Fast-Ring steering shuttles are used to convey the pallets to the lowerators serving the loading docks. The storage system is also structured to manage different pallet formats thanks to the use of a sub-pallet (slave pallet) which is coupled to certain pallets at the entrance of the storage system and decoupled at their exit. The solution enabled Texel to immediately record an optimization of both order management and the entire production process: loading times on trucks were halved compared to the previous handling method. Errors have also been reduced thanks to the management of inputs and outputs through the Wipro Ferretto WMS interconnected to the company ERP.

Objectives:
  • Revise the overall operational management by automating processes as much as possible
  • Reorganize the spaces used for the storage of apples ready for shipment
  • Improve inventory control
  • Increase personnel safety by minimizing handling with forklifts
  • Speed up order preparation so as to reduce the Time To Market
Solution:
  • Automatic self-supporting storage system in a +3°C temperature controlled cold room for the storage of products ready for shipment
  • Multi-depth seismic-resistant pallet racking made up of 4 load levels. Pallet picking and placing managed by 8 shuttles
  • No. 3 lifts serving the storage system at the entrance and no. 10 lowerers serving the truck loading docks
  • Circuit consisting of 6 Fast-Ring steering shuttles to convey the pallets to the lowerers serving the loading docks
Technical features:
  • To better manage load units of different sizes, the system uses sub-pallets (slave pallets) to be coupled to certain pallets at the entrance of the storage system which are decoupled before shipping
  • In order to guarantee high versatility, modular belt conveyors were chosen for use
Added value:
  • Increased efficiency and safety of personnel through the introduction of the goods-to-person logic
  • Better organization of space both in the warehouse and in the shipping area
  • Optimization of both order management and the entire production process. Loading times on trucks were halved, compared to the previous management process
  • Greater control of stock, full traceability and reduction of errors thanks to the management of inputs and outputs through the Wipro Ferretto's WMS interconnected to the company ERP
The storage systems in figures:
Total surface:
932 square meters
Building height:
16 meters
Unit load:
Europallet
Unit load dimensions (mm):
800/1,000 x 1,200 x h 2,300
Maximum storage capacity:
1,242 pallets
Type and number of stacker cranes:
no. 8 "supersatellite" shuttles

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