For one pet food producer, the decision to install automation came down to finances. “When comparing the project costs versus the transportation and logistics costs, the company realized it would see a return on its investment in just five years, explains Mark Livesay, vice president of Automated Warehousing, Business Development Division, ESI Group USA. “Storing the product onsite and allowing automated retrieval when it’s needed for shipping eliminates the need for offsite storage. Thus, costs associated with loading, trucking, logistics, and offsite storage are eliminated.”
The company chose to install Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), an Automated Storage & Retrieval System(AS/RS), elevators, and a monorail. ESI will construct a stand-alone structure to house the AS/ RS, a connector bridge, and penthouse – which spans approximately 95 feet between the AS/RS warehouse and the existing plant.
Livesay explains that product will be manufactured and packaged in the existing facility. An AGV will bring the product to a conveyor that takes the palletized product up 35 feet via elevator through the roof. Product is then placed onto the monorail, which transports the pallets through the penthouse and bridge to the AS/RS where it is stored until shipment. The AS/RS has a capacity of 51,000 pallet positions.
When it is time to ship the palletized product, it is automatically retrieved from the AS/RS and loaded onto the monorail for transport back to the elevator, lowered to the plant floor, and transferred by AGVs to the shipping dock.
Livesay says the new AS/RS structure will take two years to complete. Some key takeaways are the 813 DeWaal auger cast piles supporting the AS/RS structural mat slab and bridge, and 219 helical piles supporting the structural mat slab for the new equipment in the existing warehouse and the penthouse support columns.
He says: “Once the rack-supported building is completed, the equipment will be installed and tested before turning over the project. This client drove a new level of safety protocols, allowing ESI the opportunity to raise the bar for future projects.”
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