MOVING & LIFTING


The beverage industry is raising a glass to warehouse automation


W


ith increasingly fickle consumers demanding new brands and


flavours all the time, drink manufacturers are continuously looking to add to their product offerings. As a result, across the beverage industry, SKU numbers have proliferated noticeably in recent years and this has left many manufacturers and distributors struggling to find the space needed to store growing ranges within their existing warehouses and distribution centres. The need to make the most of every available square foot of storage capacity and move more inventory around the building with optimum efficiency has made the idea of automating key intralogistics functions such as the transportation of loads and the retrieval and put-away of pallets within racking schemes, more and more attractive to beverage distributors and manufacturers alike. And the case for automation has been


further strengthened by the fact that the additional labour that would traditionally have been recruited to safely and cost- effectively handle the rising stock levels within beverage warehouses and DCs, is becoming difficult and costly to attract. Indeed, a recent survey found that nearly half of beverage distributors consider the shrinking labour pool to be the biggest threat to the smooth running of their supply chains. Of course, like other sectors, the


The beverage industry is undergoing a prolonged period of significant change that is making warehouse automation a highly attractive option for companies of all sizes across the sector, says Paul Freeman, Head of Logistics Solutions, Toyota Material Handling


38 JULY/AUGUST 2022 | FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS


beverage industry is also dealing with the fall-out from the pandemic and the surge in eCommerce sales. Consumers have become used to buying drinks – particularly alcohol - online and having their orders delivered the same day, but this type of order fulfilment operation requires totally different storage and picking strategies to those deployed for fulfilling replenishment stock orders for supermarkets and other retail outlets. The space constraints generated by the


need to hold more SKUs and the shorter pick times and quicker throughput rates needed to meet the delivery expectations of internet shoppers added to the fact that the labour crisis is leaving companies with little alternative but to hire inexperienced warehouse personnel, have heightened the risk of the kind of accidents and damage to equipment, building infrastructure and stock – not to mention the injuries to workers. So, both soft and alcoholic drink manufacturers and distributors are


under growing pressure to optimise storage solutions to make the most of the people and space they have available. Increasingly, this means deploying some form of automation.


Automating those aspects of the


warehousing operation that follow a predictable pattern makes a lot of sense and relatively recent developments in automation technology have seen the emergence of flexible and scalable products that deliver a notably faster return on investment compared to the type of often costly fixed assets that, at one time, were considered central to any automated warehouse project. These days adopting automation


no longer requires every aspect of the warehouse or distribution centre to be automated – just the parts of it that will benefit most and, as a result, this sophisticated technology is within financial reach of SMEs as well as the biggest players. So, introducing warehouse automation has become a multi-phased project and by applying a systematic approach to identify the most common intralogistics functions and aspects of the material flow process, systems can be designed that fit the user’s needs and drive productivity, efficiency and lower overall supply chain costs.


IMPROVED SAFETY Despite the noteworthy efforts over many years of such respected organisations as the Fork Lift Truck Association (FLTA), the British Industrial Truck Association (BITA) and the United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA) to shine a spotlight on the often devastating consequences of lift truck accidents, the number of workplace accidents involving forklifts remains obstinately high. Indeed, according to the Health


and Safety Executive, a worker in the transport and distribution sector suffers a serious injury as a result of an incident involving a lift truck every single day of the year. Forklifts colliding when entering or


leaving an aisle, trucks overturning and machines colliding with pedestrians within a warehouse or other industrial site, are among the most common type of accidents recorded. In the overwhelming majority of cases,


responsibility for the mishap is initially deemed to lie with the truck operator. And, in a beverage warehouse where


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