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Case Studies > from Farm to Table: Optimizing A Dairy Distribution Center

from Farm to Table: Optimizing A Dairy Distribution Center

Technology Category
  • Functional Applications - Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)
  • Automation & Control - Automation & Process Control Systems
Applicable Industries
  • Food & Beverage
  • Retail
Applicable Functions
  • Warehouse & Inventory Management
  • Logistics & Transportation
Use Cases
  • Warehouse Automation
  • Fleet Management
  • Inventory Management
Services
  • System Integration
  • Hardware Design & Engineering Services
The Challenge
To keep up with growth, Byrne Dairy looked for efficiencies at its central cold storage distribution center, Syracuse Cold Storage. This 100,000-square-foot facility boasted 9,000 pallet positions with 16 loading docks. The company wanted to learn more about equipment and operations that could improve material handling processes and material flow at the warehouse.
About The Customer
Byrne Dairy, a family-owned company founded in 1933, produces and distributes milk, cream, ice cream and other dairy products. Based in central New York state, Byrne Dairy works with more than 250 local family farms. It receives and processes 50 million pounds of milk each month.
The Solution
Byrne Dairy turned to Pengate Handling Systems, Inc., an authorized Raymond® Sales and Services Center, to help evaluate its operations. Together, the companies focused on the pallet racking systems and lift truck fleet at the cold storage facility. They looked for efficiencies in product putaways and orderpicking, among other areas. Ultimately, Byrne Dairy upgraded its Syracuse facility layout and introduced a new, three-deep push-back pallet racking system to maximize use of the facility space. Along with these updates, the company introduced a lift truck fleet for efficiency. The fleet included Raymond Model 8410 end-rider pallet truck for floor-level, primary picking to process daily orders, and Raymond Model 7500 Reach-Fork® trucks for moving pallets from the dock into the racking reserves, and moving reserves down to primary locations on the floor level. These lift trucks also are designed for cold-storage facilities and specialty racks.
Operational Impact
  • Increased uptime — The lift truck fleet made an immediate impact with a laser-guidance system, which eliminates downtime for operators, and Raymond’s exclusive ACR System™, which requires fewer battery charges. It allows operators to move more pallets per charge, which helped move Syracuse Cold Storage one step closer to meeting its goal of increased uptime and improved productivity.
  • Better layout — An optimized layout in two inventory rooms allows multiple lift trucks to maneuver in the aisles at once, eliminating aisle bottlenecks and reducing operator downtime. As a result, efficiency for product putaways increased by 50 percent, and orderpicking productivity rose by 30 percent. The improved design also reduced the average number of handling touches.
Quantitative Benefit
  • Efficiency for product putaways increased by 50 percent.
  • Orderpicking productivity rose by 30 percent.

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