Multi-phase palletising and pallet transport system has delivered efficiency benefits for French cereals

Scott Automation has developed a flexible pallet conveying system that has ensured the complete integration with new and also existing equipment.

Over a 4-year period, Scott worked in close collaboration with a large private label cereal and cereal bar manufacturer in Northern France to deliver a major expansion solution that involved multi-phase palletising and pallet transport.

The initial brief was to connect the customer’s existing full pallet output from 12 production lines to new pallet wrapping and labelling equipment, automatic full load pallet buffering and fully automated trailer loading system. Scott therefore delivered a system that ensured complete integration with new and existing equipment.

As a private label producer, the variety of pallets and load styles handled meant that Euros, industrial and ‘Dusseldorf’ display pallets had to be handled, double de-stacked, individually wrapped & labelled and re-stacked in a manner dictated by the end user customers.

Additional work was then carried out to address issues with the existing robot palletiser efficiencies. This was achieved with a system for empty pallet receiving, checking and re-stacking, thus delivering perfect pallet stacks to each existing production line. The customer has since enjoyed a 15% improvement in line outputs, and a lot less manual re-stacking.

To increase output further, Scott also delivered a hybrid palletising solution, including two robotic cells and four conventional palletisers for four new high-speed carton production lines.

Each stage of the project incorporated Scott’s ‘Maestro’ internal software systems for production data collection & verification; Pallet Factory to handle all logistics pallet data, and Warehouse Control Software. This monitors all production and customer orders; quality checks and ensures track and traceability throughout the supply chain.

With an investment of this size, close collaboration between all partners was critical in ensuring success at each step. Scott’s project managements skills, in-house software teams and its proprietary manufactured product portfolio suited the dynamic food manufacturer.

Since installation, the factory output has been increased to in excess of 100 pallets per hour, eliminating forklift truck traffic and human intervention.

The food producer is benefiting from the following:

• The installation is reliable and robust
• The project management was a key factor in its success during all the project steps
• The efficiency of the whole system fits customer targets.

01384 210278
www.scottautomation.co.uk