Transforming the Food & Beverage Industry

Company Description:

This leader in the food and beverage industry is a Fortune 500 company with more than 300,000 employees. It operates hundreds of factories in 189 countries, managing international product logistics for 75 brands.

Challenge:

The food and beverage industry must adapt to market demand, and one distribution center no longer supported continuous growth. The conveyor belts were unidirectional and stacker cranes operated in constant speed. Even while running at full capacity, the distribution center could not support peak demand.

Strategy:

Stefanini applied instrumentation, mechanical, and electrical intervention on the stacker cranes and conveyor belts. This allowed for the automation of the entire process as well as tracking with fully integrated control using SAP systems. Our predictive maintenance solution allows for automated inventory management as well as cargo allocation. The combination of instrumentation, automation, and analytics optimized cargo routes during peak times and rearranged it during idle times.

Transformation:

Automating infrastructure and optimizing the cargo process increased efficiency in pallet storage and improved productivity. Along with more efficient processes and better utilization of existing assets, instrumentation created more reliability, traceability, and visibility of the entire process. Overall, the productivity of retrievals per house increased by 30 percent. This avoided the $5M+ expensive of a new warehouse and reduced ongoing maintenance costs. 

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