Pallet Runner™ – SureCold

SureCold is a Canadian company specializing in the processing of fresh salmon. They specialize particularly in the processing and refrigeration of fish.

Problem

The existing facility consisted of a 22,000 sq. ft cooler, 8000 sq. ft dock area and an additional 4800 sq. ft of refrigerated room storage in a separate part of the building.

The storage cooler could handle approximately 880 pallets when placed on selective pallet racks and pyramid stacks on the floor.

Daily inbound ranged from 15-25 trailers full of pallets of fresh Salmon, of which needed to be received, stored, picked, and shipped within 24 hours.

The operational challenge was losing the 4800 sq. ft of additional refrigerated storage and the need to increase pallet density and throughput within the 22,000 sq. ft cooler.

Solution

The solution was to design a layout that created both a staged/completed order area, deep aisle storage, plus a specific rack that accommodated the withdrawal of full pallets and crates.

6 LIFO aisles at 22 pallets deep (a full trailer load) for pre-arranged orders, 13 FIFO aisles 18 pallets deep, and a few rows of racks for SKUs of less than eight pallets and crate retrievals was created.

8 Pallet Runner™ carts were required to maintain the speed of the production line, both inbound and outbound.

Advantages

Reduced forklift travel by over 60% since operators no longer had to retrieve completed/staged orders from other parts of the facility.

Trailer unload and storage time decreased substantially since the Automha system was located within the cooler close to the receiving dock.

Eliminated the need for costly refrigerated trailers as temporary storage when product volume exceeded the limits of the old cooler configuration.

Considerably increased warehouse efficiency by eliminating extra steps.(Reduced forklift travel, no need for extra outside trailer storage, ability to stage completed orders in the same cooler).

See the past layout vs new layout configuration!

Gallery