News
Safe storage and picking of wine and spirit
13.04.2017
Comunian Bevande is one of Italy’s leading beverage retailers. The company supplies its customers from a portfolio of around 2,000 different products. To improve safety and efficiency, the warehouse had to be converted from a manual to an automatic operation. A new storage and retrieval system from Kardex Remstar was the optimal solution.
Comunian Bevande supplies bars, restaurants, canteens, and other business partners throughout Italy with wine, beer, and spirits. With a product range that includes around 2,000 different items, the company – formed in 1972 – is one of the country’s market leaders.
The warehouse keeps 30,000 bottles of wine and spirits in stock. Approximately 1,000 bottles a day are picked to order there. The bottles are dispatched both individually and in boxes of six. To improve the quality of service, the wholesaler set itself the target of delivering mixed orders (a combination of boxes and individual bottles) to its customers within 24 hours.
The work was previously done in shifts with two warehouse employees on each shift. This involved the employees walking long distances along static shelving on the way to fetching the items, finding the ordered bottles, and picking them manually. The confined space and multilevel shelving increased the risk of injury, which Comunian Bevande wanted to reduce.
With the help of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Prevention, Comunian Bevande opted for two fully automatic Shuttle XP storage systems from Kardex Remstar, which were installed next to each other in the warehouse. RFID scanners are also used to increase the accuracy of the picking process. This prevents picking errors and the goods can also be clearly traced.
Employees no longer have to walk long distances thanks to the highly dense storage of goods in one location. In addition, the company was able to cancel the planned investment in forklift trucks. Working conditions have improved considerably following the introduction of the new system. Both automated storage systems work in line with the goods-to-person principle, allowing employees to retrieve the items at an ergonomic working height. This has also significantly cut the risk of accidents in the workplace.
Advantages at a glance:
- Fast and efficient order picking
- Continuous traceability of goods
- Safe and ergonomic operation thanks to the goods-to-person principle
- Goods protected from dust, dirt, and damage