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Pesmel and Cimcorp Ltd. together have delivered two large fully automated despatch centres to Valio’s mills in Riihimäki and Jyväskylä, Finland, which have brought big changes to their previously manual operations.
The Pesmel products for Valio are part of an order picking system, which responds automatically to customer orders. The changeover of handling operations from manual to automated has resulted in many advantages, the most important of which are more efficient processes, a reduction in errors and improved accuracy of delivery. Developing these features was one of Valio’s strategic objectives. Even though some of the order picking is still done manually, the differences are significant. In addition, the employees’ work is more challenging and heavier tasks are done automatically.
Valio is the market leader for all the key dairy products in Finland and handles 85 percent of all the milk produced in the country. The delivery chain from primary producer to retail outlets must be fast and efficient throughout, because dairy products are perishable.
The Pesmel link in this chain starts after the production process, when the transfer carriage distributes roller cages and dollies coming from the production area to their specific areas. The maximum capacity of the transfer carriages is 544 dollies/roller cages per hour. The transfer carriage moves the dollies to the appropriate station, where the dolly carriages are separated from the piles of crates, which continue by slat conveyor to the order picking area.
The dolly carriages are transferred to the intermediate storage area. After order picking, the crate piles come by slat conveyor to the station where the dolly carriage is replaced under the pile of crates. The out-feed capacity of this station is 900 dollies per hour, which is equal to 2550 order lines per hour. The products are then ready for despatch to the retailers’ shelves.
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