Kraft Heinz
PROJECT BRIEF
Kraft Heinz is the third-largest Food & Beverage company globally. Their Northgate Facility in Brisbane is the site of the historical Golden Circle Cannery producing quality Queensland grown products since 1947.
The Golden Circle Production facility feeds directly into their warehouse for storage before distribution. Half of their existing warehouse was taken up by Selective Pallet Racking, with the other half being used as block stacks of pallets 2-3 high.
Kraft Heinz was eager to explore options to use the best practice and the latest technology to maximise their storage capacity of the existing warehouse. This would remove their need for offsite storage, increase warehouse efficiency and reduce the risk of damage to the product from double and triple stacking on the floor.
In investigating their options the APC Storage Technology Radioshuttle® was highlighted as having been an effective solution for their NZ facilities and as a great option for their Brisbane warehouse.
PROJECT SOLUTION
With a target to maximize the pallet storage capacity in the available footprint, APC set to work with our local team on the ground and the design and engineering team to optimise the layout by carefully measuring the existing site and locating the finished layout in the optimum location of the warehouse. The team also analyzed the data on product lines and forklift travel times through the process from leaving production to despatch to ensure that the storage volumes and pick faces were maximised.
The solution proposed by APC was for 12 sections of 7 lanes by 32 pallets deep and 6 pallets high of Radioshuttle Satellite Racking with a total capacity of just over 16,000 pallet locations using 8 Radioshuttles®. The rack was designed to a depth of 32 Pallets to provide maximum density for best use of the footprint and taking into account the goods inwards from production and outbound to despatch and 6 pallets high to best utilise the available height in the warehouse.
Installation of the racking system required a large amount of coordination. As this was an existing warehouse, the install needed to be completed in a prompt timeline with a progressive hand over so there would be minimum disruption to normal operations which were further complicated by the COVID-19 global pandemic.
APC was able to work closely with the Kraft Heinz team to set up an efficient and safe installation while keeping all staff on site protected. Temporary fencing was used as a physcial barricade to isolate the work area. We were able to hand over 1,344 pallet locations per week to Kraft Heinz by moving the fencing away from the recently completed racking and onto the next stage, making for a smooth transition for their use.