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Growing manufacturing levels turns Beef Products Inc. to automation
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)
- Automation & Control - Automation & Process Control Systems
- Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems
Applicable Industries
- Food & Beverage
- Consumer Goods
Applicable Functions
- Warehouse & Inventory Management
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Inventory Management
- Warehouse Automation
- Predictive Maintenance
- Process Control & Optimization
Services
- System Integration
- Software Design & Engineering Services
The Challenge
Food safety is a critical priority at Beef Products, Inc. (BPI) and with manufacturing approaching 1,000,000 lbs per day, it was essential for BPI to automate the material handling and inventory control process. Through automation BPI would achieve maximum storage and optimize their warehouse logistics. BPI required the use of an area adjacent to the meat processing plant to store products and process orders. BPI needed storage capacity in excess of 20 million lbs of beef. In addition, the available land for the freezer was 400’ away from manufacturing with a railroad truck separating the building lots. BPI’s continuous manufacturing operation produces boxed beef, and while the product type is identified by a bar code label on each individual case, the product grade is not determined until the results of quality control testing are known. As a result, BPI needed a way to apply readable bar codes after production, on finished-palletized loads to allow scanning and identification within the new automated warehouse and at their customer’s dock. In addition, their food safety program prohibits shipment of all products until quality assurance testing results are proven. BPI needed the ability to quarantine all products and then to provide automatic release of palletized products as ready-to-ship inventory.
About The Customer
Beef Products, Inc. (BPI) is the world’s leading manufacturer of boneless lean beef, headquartered in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota. BPI is renowned for its high standards in food safety and quality, producing nearly 1,000,000 lbs of beef per day. The company operates a continuous manufacturing process that requires stringent quality control measures to ensure the safety and quality of its products. BPI's operations are extensive, necessitating advanced storage and logistics solutions to manage the large volumes of beef produced daily. The company sought to enhance its material handling and inventory control processes through automation to maintain its high standards and improve operational efficiency.
The Solution
To garner the greatest amount of storage, run the most efficient logistics system, and provide cost savings, a high-density AS/RS was developed. Westfalia designed the conveying system to include approximately 18 pallets of accumulation between the palletizer and the print-and-apply station in order to allow enough time to gather additional information regarding product grade prior to the labeling system. The pallet loads are then automatically conveyed into the freezer, where they arrive at a turntable and are directed to one of two Storage Retrieval Machines (SRMs) for storage. The AS/RS is designed with two SRMs in one aisle, thereby providing redundancy - should one SRM require maintenance, the other can still service the aisle. The 15-level high freezer storage system has 10-deep storage lanes on both sides of the aisle. Westfalia’s patented Satellite® rack entry vehicle and triple pallet support rack system provide fast 110 pallets/hour throughput rates with safer pallet handling. The innovative high-density storage design furnishes 11,886 pallet positions in a 20,235 square foot freezer.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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