WMS & Warehouse Automation

Reducing Labour Demands & Costs

In these challenging times our customers are interested in adopting new ways to make their businesses more flexible, agile, and competitive. They are building new, refitting, or expanding existing warehouses to handle and store increased stock volumes.

A key consideration is seeking out ways to reduce labour inputs given their associated costs and growing importance, in order to plan for potential labour shortages arising from, for example, Brexit and Covid disruption and challenges.

WMS & Moffet Automated Storage & Retrieval Technology:

Managing Cold & Dry Goods storage for C&M Cold Stores

Established in 1995, C&M Cold Stores (C&M) is one of Ireland’s largest integrated Cold and Dry Goods stores offering full pallet storage and case picking facilities.

C&M recently acquired its third site in County Monaghan, Ireland. This state-of-the-art 115,000 square foot facility expands C&M‘s available space to cater for the demands of its growing customer base.

C&M divided the warehouse into two rooms:

Room one is designed for ambient storage and is fitted out with very narrow aisle (VNA) racking, six high and contains over 6,000, extra height pallet spaces. ProWMS Warehouse Management Software is used to manage this room as a normal 3PL warehouse facility.

The second room was converted to a -22°C cold store. It is fitted out with the new Moffett 4D Taxi Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS) and is interfaced to In-DEX WMS.

Automated Warehouse Storage & Retrieval System

Overview:

In-feed conveyor – the point-of-entry for all pallets
Specialised tied-together racking to maximise the pallet count per sq. foot
A vertical lift unit – to transfer pallets between levels
Motorised pallet taxis – a wireless & multi-directional shuttle with a 1500kg lifting capacity, battery & WiFi communication able to travel at 1.2m/s
A picking tunnel (if required)
A Human Machine Interface (HMI), or EDI interface to communicate with external WMS systems.

Benefits:

Storage density increased by up to 70%
Labour requirements reduced
Productivity increased
Safety enhanced
Suitable for new or retrofitted warehouses
Full pallet or picking operations
Creates a more sustainable cold storage solution

See the Moffett 4D Taxi (AS/RS) Automated Storage & Retrieval System in action

Inbound Process: C&M Cold Stores

Outbound Process – On extraction, a similar process operates in reverse:

Ask us how ProWMS Warehouse Management Software can optimise your Industry-Specific Warehousing and Supply Chain operations benefitting your bottom line and providing you with a competitive edge.