A fast-paced and demanding production environment needs specific solutions for the warehouse. As a food manufacturer, the integrity of the product is an important factor to consider when it comes to storage and delivery. Rizopia is a Richmond Hill, Ontario-based white-label manufacturer of rice pasta. They supply their products to the Canadian and US markets through grocery distributors. With high turnover rates, Rizopia had challenges to be solved in its production environment.
How do you maximize space while ensuring quick turnover?
Rizopia needed a space where they could make a small footprint for storage of raw materials with a dedicated space for production. Because they are a food manufacturer, they needed a first-in, first-out system (FIFO) to ensure the quality and timely consumption of their products before expiry. Rizopia has both shrink-wrapped sacks and super sacks, both with different characteristics. These products also needed consideration for bulge, overhang and nylon loops and for the products to be perfectly square and level while being stored. Their product profile includes a low number of unique items, but a high number of pallets with only two load types.
For this project, we took into consideration pallet types, the range of quality of pallets, design, rack structure and robot considerations.
A semi-automated solution made it work
The Pallet Shuttle System was implemented for Rizopia. A high-density storage solution, it is remotely-controlled and a good alternative to live storage and drive-in racking. A shuttle robot deposits and picks up the pallets, eliminating the need for forklift drivers and allowing for a dense productive system.
Because Rizopia has a high number of inventory with the same SKU, this system was ideal and we were able to implement it with 21 pallets deep (90 feet) to accommodate the demands of the in and out production requirements. Safety netting was integrated to protect workers and products.
The structure was built in two weeks, was tested and quickly went live, with very little disruption in service for the company.
Efficiency and manpower reduction
The shuttle system has enormous density and is seven times denser than a traditional system, allowing us to implement an efficient system at only 1500 sq. ft. as opposed to 10,000 sq. ft. with the traditional one. We greatly increased the efficiency of the space.
Manpower was significantly reduced with the Pallet Shuttle System with robots pulling and putting away the products, both a time and cost savings.