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The most notable cost savings in modern industry are achieved, after the manufacturing process. The Pesmel company, which invests strongly in its know-how and expertise, knows how this comes about.
Standard solutions are often nowhere near sufficient. Project manager Panu Perasto points out that the differences in material flows result in solutions being tailor-made, often from the very beginning, according to the needs of the customer. This is especially emphasized in the piece goods industry, for which Pesmel supplies logistic systems ranging from robot cells to conveyors and often also integration technology.
"The food industry is an important and increasingly growing group of customers for our company", explains Perasto. Looked at from the viewpoint of the food industry, Pesmel's strengths lie in the product range, experience, delivery performance and sustained operation. The systems have to continuously meet the challenges imposed by the high demands of the branch, as regards capacity and quality. Pesmel's solutions can also be applied in bakeries, breweries, dairies and meat-processing units, among others.
Boosting material flows brings a competitive advantage
Pesmel's project manager, Panu Perasto, a graduate engineer, has a wide range of experience and visions in implementing logistic systems. The basic starting point is simple:
It is namely in logistic systems that cost savings can be achieved and through them competitive advantages. This demands a thorough in-depth study of the special features of the customer's material flows, as well as the possibilities and challenges offered by proper space utilization. The supplier must act as a consultant to the customer and look at the logistic chain through new eyes. In this way, new more effective ways of implementing projects can be found, Perasto believes.
The products are always handled after the actual manufacturing process. This is often experienced as a supporting process that gives the product no extra added value. This, however, is already an outdated way of thinking. Perasto continues: "From the viewpoint of the company's profitability, a reduction in the wastage of finished products and storage loss is many times more profitable than releasing individual bottlenecks in production. When operations are made more effective, they should be extended to cover the whole process, including its final stages".
There is every reason to focus attention on post production automation. Labour costs can be cut by the introduction of automation and delivery performance can be enhanced. In the same way, time precision and the tracking of the product during the various logistical stages is improved. In addition, damage to the products and wastage are reduced.
"An often forgotten saving is proper space utilization. When this and the advantages achieved by Pesmel's customers are added together, quite considerable savings are gained. The basic reason for automation and rationalisation is, after all, an improvement in competitiveness", explains Perasto.
According to Perasto, one concrete example of the most effective use of automation is exemplified by the automation of product packaging. "At the most general level, the rise in capacity requirements poses a serious challenge. It is no easy task to dovetail large volumes and increasing speeds", explains Perasto.
New challenges
The implementation of industrial investments is not only a question of buying and supplying. Customer-driven operations also include the production of other services needed by the clientele, such as training. The training of operatives can guarantee faster start-up times for the equipment, as well as the optimum operation of that equipment from the very beginning.
"Full service and customer initiative involve an approach, whereby we supply our clientele with exactly what they want", says Perasto, who continues to explain his own and Pesmel's operational philosophy.
Boosting materials handling is not only the acquisition of systems, but the clientele of our customer companies and the goods suppliers constitute the other side of the coin. As a result of lengthening the cooperation chains and networking, the needs of partners are also to be taken into consideration. When the solution and the equipment suppliers also take note of the needs of our partners, a solution is attained which brings added value to the customer over the longer term. Often this quite naturally means that changes at a certain level in the way of operating are required in the activities of our partners. Typical changes involve a reduction in pallet sizes and their combination with the same transport units. Often this represents, as in the case of other cooperation, a win-win situation for all the parties from the viewpoint of efficiency, as well as a strengthening of relations with the clientele.
"We would supply our customers with a Ferris wheel if that was what they wanted for transporting their products. What is important to remember is that both the delivery of the actual logistics systems, as well as the clientele's way of thinking can lead to all kinds of surprising challenges", quips Panu Perasto.
A good example of the possibilities of automation is a project led by Perasto which involves the development under Russian conditions of the logistics for the huge bakery Hlebny Dom.
Hlebny Dom upgraded the production of its bakeries to a new level by modernising its production chain
Hlebny Dom is a subsidiary of the Fazer Bakeries operating in Russia. Hlebny Dom has three production units in the vicinity of St Petersburg, producing about 350 tons of bakery products a day. Pesmel has supplied the production units of Hlebny Dom and Murinsky with a system for the automatic handling of crates.
The system supplied in the year 2000 and the one now consists of the following functions: the handling of crate stacks, the stacking and unloading of piles of crates, the storage of crates and the crating of products. At Hlebny Dom's largest bakery, the through-put of crates amounts to about 20 000 crates an hour. The new crate warehouse at the Murinsky bakery has a storage capacity of about 37 000 crates.
The moving of crates previously required a large labour force and was a clear bottleneck in Hlebny Dom's processes. Thanks to the new system, the crating and transport of products will be greatly enhanced, because the handling of returned crates will henceforth be automated.
Further information:
Mrs. Sanna Rintatalo
firstname.lastname@pesmel.com
Tel. +358 6 234 1357
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