The Smith’s Snackfood Company, has reduced manual handling and production bottlenecks at one of its distribution centres by automating the company's pallet distribution process using CHEP technology.
Smith’s moves a significant number of cases of the country’s favourite snacks on pallets through its Tingalpa distribution centre in Queensland each week.
With such a high volume of pallets moving through the order assembly area each week, the time consuming process regularly impacted the efficiency of the site as bottle necks forced staff to wait for the team’s forklift to replenish pallet supplies and break large stacks of pallets down for individual removal by pallet jack.
OH&S issues arose when staff members literally took matters into their own hands and broke down pallet stacks themselves.
This manual handling of pallets increased the risk of injury and as such, an unacceptable situation to Smith’s management.
When a team member floated the idea of automating the pallet dispensing process during a planning session, distribution centre manager, Kevin Quinn and his team started the search for a machine to get the job done.
One of their first calls was to Ronan Maguire, Platform Specialist - Cubics (Perishables) at CHEP, who introduced him to CHEP’s Pallet Dispenser.
"We were able to see a prototype in action at a Distribution Centre nearby — four months later we had one ourselves. The whole process ran really smoothly," Quinn says.
"We looked at a couple of alternatives, but the CHEP machine best suited our requirements."
The CHEP Pallet Dispenser allows pallets to be loaded and accumulated in a stack.
When required, the machine releases individual pallets on to the floor for retrieval by a pallet jack or hand truck. When using the automatic model, the unit can dispense up to four pallets per minute.
"It’s really easy to use; there are no buttons to push or things to fiddle with," Quinn says. "It’s a set and forget solution — load it up and walk away with your pallet when you need it. The whole process is automatic."
"We’ve increased the efficiency of our order picking team who no longer have to wait for the forklift to break down their pallets for them, the dispenser can shoot one out every 15 seconds if needed, and our forklift is used more efficiently as well."
Kevin Quinn says Smith’s pallet dispenser arrangement suits the company down to the ground.
"One of our biggest challenges is space," he explains. "The sheer volume of product passing through our Distribution Centre everyday can stretch our capacity to handle and store it all."
"Not having surplus pallets lying around, and being able to quickly move the ones we do need really improves this situation."
"By using the CHEP Pallet Dispenser to make the order picking process more efficient, we are able to assemble orders more efficiently, and have eliminated any OH&S concerns with team members breaking down pallets for individual use."
"The addition of the CHEP Pallet Dispenser has definitely made a difference."
"A distribution centre’s forklift is a valuable asset — by using ours more efficiently, we have delivered productivity savings to our business for all tasks associated with replenishing our pick module," Quinn adds.
"We move huge quantities of stock on a daily basis. Anything that assists in the management of this volume of product in a way that delivers productivity and OH&S improvements is a welcome addition to our operations."
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