Mecalux this week announced that it has installed robots at the first PepsiCo automated warehouse in Poland. The facilities, which cover an area the size of seven soccer fields, produce bags of potato chips and other snacks for the European market, primarily Germany, it said.
PepsiCo was interested in increasing the distribution pace of products to the European market and direct goods shipments to German clients. It also wanted to speed up putaway of potato chips and other snacks arriving from production.
PepsiCo moves thousands of pallets of potatoes
The leading global food and beverage company has operated along the Vistula River since the 1970s, opening its first factory in Michrów in 1991. With 9,000 locations for finished goods, this space is part of the Środa Śląska factory.
The PepsiCo plant — which the multinational claimed is its most sustainable in Europe — is handles thousands of pallets of potatoes daily. Covering an area the size of seven soccer pitches, there was plenty of movement to orchestrate at the facility.
Every year, Środa Śląska receives 66,000-plus tons of potatoes to manufacture Lay’s and over 16,500 tons of corn to make Doritos chips. Now, the facility receives goods through new electric monorail and conveyor systems for pallets, executing thousands of movements continuously every day.
How Mecalux helps meet high production levels
Mecalux specializes in the design, manufacturing, sale, and service of metal racking, automated warehouses, and other storage systems. The company has an extensive distribution network across Europe, the U.K., Latin America, and the U.S.
In addition to moving thousands of pallets each day, the monorail and conveyor systems connect the warehouse with the docking area. The electric monorail deposits pallets ordered by clients into five double-channel live roller conveyor lines, Mecalux explained.
Each channel has a 34-pallet capacity, said the company. The system groups SKUs according to delivery route, vehicle type, client and shipping priority, among other factors.
“The production process is fully integrated with the automated warehouse” stated Maciej Pietrusa, warehouse manager for PepsiCo Poland in Środa Śląska. “This means each bag of potato chips is automatically transferred from production to picking, palletizing, and loading onto the truck,
Mecalux also installed its automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) for pallets at the facility.
In addition, PepsiCo plans implement Mecalux’s Easy WMS warehouse management system to control inventory status in real time. Mecalux said it will integrate this software with PepsiCo’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to ensure that operations run smoothly. It will coordinate flows of goods from production until they are prepared for distribution to clients.
Mecalux said its technology enables PepsiCo to ship thousands of pallets a day containing customer orders efficiently. It also enables a continuous flow of goods, allowing PepsiCo to automatically handle 3,500 pallets daily.
These systems are helping to optimize PepsiCo’s supply chain overall. The company also recently relied on Mecalux to equip its plant in Veurne, Belgium, one of its largest in Europe.