News

News-Übersicht anzeigen

Spicers s’invests in automation for future growth

01.05.2013

Leading wholesaler of office products in the UK & Ireland, Spicers, has appointed Savoye to design, supply, install and commission an automated order preparation solution at its Smethwick distribution centre in the West Midlands.

With a total investment of over £2.3 million, the project to upgrade Spicers’ existing order preparation process at the UK facility is central to the company’s planned growth. Spicers UK and Ireland have a turnover of £275 million and provide a wide range of products and services to over 2,000 resellers. The company has a vast product range, holding over 17,500 stock lines provided by over 300 vendors. Hence, investment in the latest automation system is key to consistent delivery of best-in-class fulfilment, a key area of advantage in the highly competitive office products market.

Savoye’s multi-faceted automation solution comprises the provision of three key elements:

  • Intelis® conveyors – Savoye’s latest innovation enables efficient and rapid installation of this flexible, electric powered and eco-friendly system.
  • Jivaro® carton closing machine – named after the South American headshrinker tribe, Jivaro® cleverly cuts carton sizes to fit the order dimensions, thus minimising the need for void fill and improving logistics efficiencies. Reduction of void is a requirement of The Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulation 2003. Failure to comply with this can result in fines of up to £5,000 where void is deemed as being excessive.
  • LM7 – Savoye’s globally adopted warehouse management control system, which manages the complete order picking and storage process for over 14,500 SKUs.

Other notable aspects of the project, which commences in April 2013 and is due for completion in August, include dual height tray erectors, carton live storage, label applicators, automatic document dispenser and carton branding using spray printing technology.

Mark Fogerty, head of programme management at Spicers, said: “This is a hugely important project for us and will enable us to meet our aggressive growth targets and improve further on our service level, over the next five years. Having designed, installed and supported our existing system, Savoye was the natural choice for us when it came to upgrading the system.”

Alain Bussod, European business unit director of Savoye, said: “This is a really exciting project for us as it shows off our full capability; to be able to offer a suite of automated solutions, all controlled by our world-beating LM7 software, provided through our sister company, a-SIS. It’s also great to be able to roll out our latest innovation, Intelis® to this longstanding customer, who will really benefit from its flexibility and energy saving characteristics.”

The investment in new automation will also see the construction of a new warehouse extension at Spicers’ Smethwick site, which will see the current dealer distribution centre growth from 9,500m² to 17,000m².



Weitere Informationen, die für Sie interessant sein könnten:
Damit diese Website ordnungsgemäß funktioniert, legen wir kleine Dateien – sogenannte Cookies – auf Ihrem Gerät ab. Weitere Informationen finden Sie hier: Datenschutzerklärung