Dematic has revealed details of two major projects.
In Dubai, UAE, the integrator has competed a new automated distribution centre for the Landmark Group. It consolidates logistics activities for the multinational retailer in five existing manual distribution sites.
The new DC is located in the Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA), close to DP WORLD Jebel Ali Port. From this location, the Landmark Group stores and distributes garments, furniture, toys, small goods and more to nearly 1,400 of its retail stores and thereafter directly to end consumers. Landmark is one of the largest retailers in the Middle East, Africa, and India, supplying over 2,300 businesses in 24 countries.
The 265,000 sqm (2,852,436 sq.ft.) site has a pallet warehouse silo (43 metres or 141 feet high) and up to 36,000 storage locations for receiving goods. Inventory not immediately needed for distribution is palletized, then stored and retrieved double-deep via four 41 metre stacker cranes with two telescopic forks.
The climate-regulated high-bay warehouse stores temperature sensitive items and is equipped with a fire prevention system with an oxygen-reduced environment so even highly flammable goods can be stored.
Dematic installed its Multishuttle system that can pass items off between aisles. One shuttle can serve between 700 and 800 storage locations. Up to 15,000 totes per hour can be transported to the picking stations, making it the largest and fastest Dematic has ever installed.
The overall solution has more than 200 workstations with specific applications, including value added services such as customizing goods for specific retailers by adding tags, branding or promotional offers. An 11-kilometre conveyor system for containers and pallets and a sortation system complete the operation.
Dematic’s WMS manages inventory, while a Warehouse Control System (WCS) and a Material Flow Controller (MFC) reposition goods in four automated warehouse sections and the temperature-controlled manual warehouse, based on current and forecast demand.
Merchants Distributors
Dematic will also supply Merchants Distributors (MDI), a wholesale grocery distributor, with an automated mixed-case fulfillment solution for the renovation and expansion of its operations centre.
MDI and its parent company Alex Lee, Inc. are based in Hickory, North Carolina, distributing both food and non-food grocery items to more than 600 retail stores across the United States and other locations. MDI has added 33 percent more stores over the past five years, which has led to the need to expand their current facility located in Caldwell County, North Carolina.
Recognizing the need for greater efficiencies, MDI sought advanced technology that would allow them to reallocate existing employees to more productive, more ergonomic and better-paying positions. The 200,000 square foot expansion to their ambient-temperature facility and increased capacity will result in a net gain of 111 jobs.
When completed, Dematic software will manage and control an automated system that will palletize 165,000 cases per day (up from the current 125,000), with capacity to reach 200,000 cases per day. The pallets themselves will be more densely packed and shelf-ready for the quickest possible stocking at the stores — all this resulting in a safer, more efficient work environment.
The Dematic mixed-case fulfillment system will use a high-bay unit-load AS/RS for pallets, the Dematic Multishuttle for case buffering and sequencing and palletizers to automatically build mixed-case pallets. In addition, a goods-to-person piece picking module will be integrated to deliver smaller order quantities.
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