From manual to fully automated warehouse

Lantmännen Unibake is one of the world's largest producers of bakery products with 36 bakeries located in more than 20 countries worldwide. The company's roots are in Sweden. It originated from a cooperative of 25,000 Swedish farmers, who are still shareholders today. Every day it delivers a wide range of frozen bake-off products (bread, fast food, savory and sweet) to foodservice and retail channels in more than 60 countries around the world. The focus is on Northern and Western Europe, however, there is expansion towards Eastern Europe. Deliveries are also made in America and South Africa.

Lantmännen Unibake's philosophy is to responsibly ensure a sustainable society. The company controls the entire ecological chain. From the cultivation of crops, the production of machines and products to the buildings.

Frozen bake-off bread 

Lantmännen Unibake's core business is producing bake-off bread. Londerzeel is home to one of the factories and the UDC, the Unibake Distribution Center, where all products are stored at -23°C. At this location, 98% of the bake-off bread is produced for distribution to supermarkets in the Netherlands and Belgium. We are talking to Yves Claes, Supply Chain Manager, Paul Rigaux, Logistics Manager and Eddy Clais, Warehouse Coordinator. 

Fully automated distribution center
"We had a fully automated distribution center built by SSI SCHAEFER, which is essential in our entire chain. The UDC is directly linked to our bakery. Our products go into the freezer via conveyor bridge. These movements must be continuous. If it falters, it must be resolved immediately. SSI SCHAEFER has the network, knowledge and experience to keep this continuous process running. This allows us to focus on our core business: producing bread. In this way, the RM Team takes care of everything for us." Paul Rigaux Logistics Manager

Customer needs create parallel storage flow

Claes explains Lantmännen Unibake's challenges. "In recent years there has been an increase in the number and variety of bake-off bread products. This means that Lantmännen Unibake has to be constantly flexible in order to keep meeting customers' wishes and needs. A different product immediately leads to additional storage. This means that due to these customer requirements, there are two parallel streams of different products, in addition to all other variants, that need to be stored. This requires extra effort from our logistics.

"Previously, we only worked with manual warehouses. Switching from a manual to a fully automated warehouse had a big impact. Logistics was something that came after production," Rigaux said. Meanwhile, the fully automatic warehouse is seen as a second production environment. "It is no longer a warehouse where you can add a few people to run more production. Because of this different way of working, we have evolved in our processes. The big changes are mainly the speed and capacity we have been able to create in the warehouse. In addition, there are the stricter requirements that we place on the packaging and pallets that go into the frozen high bay warehouse. As a result, there are fewer breakdowns. All this gives us flexibility towards our customers, but most importantly, this different way of working allows us to guarantee quality. This is essential when you work with food products," Rigaux continues his story. 

Deep freezer high bay warehouse

"The old warehouse next to the bakery was too small and in poor condition. It was a duo warehouse: partly conventional and to a limited extent an automatic warehouse. To create capacity and speed, a fully automated high bay freezer warehouse built for growth was chosen. This was the first fully automated warehouse within the Lantmännen Unibake Group," Clais says passionately. The freezer warehouse is a clad rack building. The racks then also serve as the supporting structure for the walls and roof. With this method of construction, valuable square meters are utilized so that the maximum area and height are used optimally for storage. The freezer warehouse is 32 m high and measures 50 m wide x 70 m long. Nine channels are equipped with the SSI EXYZ cranes with telescopic forks for double-deep storage. This warehouse can store 28,500 pallets, both EU and IND provided a slave pallet is used.

Close cooperation
Over the years the cooperation has improved and grown enormously from both sides. For us, there is no longer a distinction between the people at Lantmännen Unibake and SSI SCHAEFER. It has become a team where we meet daily, but have also created a weekly and monthly consultation structure. The RM Team works from a very comprehensive maintenance plan that ensures that our logistics flow is relieved as much as possible. Yves Claes Cluster Supply Chain Manager

Sequencing 

Rigaux continues: "As our trucks make several stops, it is important that pallets go to the outbound in a certain order. SSI SCHAEFER has come up with an ingenious concept for this which means that staging, i.e. prepositioning, is not required. The system can prepare 140 pallets per hour from stock for transport to the customer. We can be confident that, as soon as the team leader on the quay gives a GO, the pallets are automatically retrieved from the freezer warehouse within 15 to 20 minutes and are at the loading dock in the correct order." Claes then adds: "Thanks to this automation, we need fewer people in the freezing area and can deploy our people in the unloading and loading area, which is a much safer and pleasant working environment."

Footprint

"At this location, a nice logistics marriage has been created between the bakery and a state-of-the-art warehouse. In the past, many transports took place between production and different warehouses in Belgium. This involved high costs for logistics and was less ecologically sound. By building the warehouse next to the bakery, we saved costs, made our internal logistics process more sustainable and reduced our footprint. This fits perfectly with our philosophy," Claes proudly explains.

Safety in the freezer 

"Safety in the freezer is paramount for us!" cites Rigaux. "To keep the temperature constant at -23°C, we chose traditional refrigeration. This allows us to pick pallets even on the top floor of the freezer warehouse. Currently, this picking is done via RF scanning, but we are keeping an eye on new technologies. Manual picking is always more error-prone. Currently, 99.8% goes error-free. However, if 100 boxes are picked incorrectly, you can receive 100 complaints. For us as a food company, it is important not to receive complaints due to errors in logistics processes. Nevertheless, we chose to have employees do the carton picking because of the lower volume to be picked. However, an employee is legally allowed to work in the freezer for only 1 hour and then they have to get out for 10 minutes. Safety should never be compromised. This is why we organize training sessions together with the Resident Maintenance Team at SSI SCHAEFER. We too need to know what they are doing. Because if there is an emergency, we must be able to support them." 

TCO
An opinion on Total Cost of Ownership, not just the acquisition cost but a calculation of the entire economic life, was a condition in the contract, according to Claes. "Thanks to this overview, we know well in advance when we can expect major costs. We can then react proactively to this. Of course, you can't predict everything, but we still get a very valuable indication and can control and oversee costs as a result."

Resident Maintenance Team 

Clais has worked at Lantmännen Unibake for more than 25 years and is responsible for the entire technical operation of the UDC. Since the cold store was commissioned, a Resident Maintenance Team (RM Team) from SSI SCHAEFER has been working there. About the arrival of the RM Team, Clais says: "Initially, the collaboration did not go according to plan. The commercial side and service cannot be separated. Service is important to us and this had to be tailored to the requirements and expectations. We want a partnership and are not looking for suppliers. We expect a partner to offer the right service, so you can work together constructively. Meanwhile, all obstacles have been resolved and the contract has been completely revised. We are now working with a performance-based contract and clear KPIs." Claes adds: "It is important for us to be able to focus on our core business. An RM Team has to relieve us. This RM Team has good technicians with a network far beyond our own. They can share information "internally," however, we do realize that each site is unique. They are the in-house specialist and make sure that if there are problems it is solved immediately. They also fully realize that our process cannot be stopped." Clais continues: "Because the technicians can follow the processes in the warehouse via cameras and live visualization, they know exactly where, if anything, something is stalled. Action can then be taken immediately.     

And sometimes it's not even the technology that's stalled, but a loose piece of film can be the culprit. By now these technicians know the warehouse well and are part of our organization."

Partnership 

Clais explains how the collaboration works. "Together, I have discussions with SSI SCHAEFER about the system and we discuss performance, optimizations, planned maintenance and appropriate repairs. It is nice to see weaknesses together and come up with solutions. But also to receive advice or insights into the process. Safety is at the top of our priority list. For example, we recently changed sensors, moving downtime in the crane warehouse to our conveyors, where a breakdown is much safer and faster to repair. We are also looking at whether it is necessary to slave every pallet. This is time consuming and takes up extra height, so our tallest pallets cannot currently be stored here. We are gaining this knowledge thanks to sharing SSI SCHAEFER experiences at other sites."    

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