Operators seeking more control as automation continues its march
Beumer Group believes the trend towards automation within warehouses is progressing at full pace and will continue to do so.
With operators wishing to run safer and more logical facilities and systems, developments in ‘intralogistics’ are seeing the end of tiring, monotonous and physically strenuous activities, the German materials handling technology firm insists.
This has led to demands for tailored and integrated automation technology that both reduces lifecycle time and lowers costs and therefore, it says in its report, The key to greater efficiency.
“The integration of systems is the challenge of the future,” Beumer’s Automation Department head Franz-Josef Kleigrew states.
Kleigrew has been with the group since 1977 and is convinced that the integration of processes will only increase.
“Intralogistics is experiencing a transformation due to demographic changes and also because of increased process complexity,” he says.
“Automation technology in particular is being constantly driven forward.”
“This way manual processes can be optimised and effective synergies formed between man and machine. Automation technology is the key to technical development and further advancement.
“Operators no longer wish to run just one system, they want a combination of several coordinated systems.”
Kleingrewe sees it as a market need. Sortation and distribution systems are good examples which can be incorporated into distribution centres.
In order to guarantee rapid consignments out to customers, highly efficient processes are required. As soon as products arrive at the goods receipt department, they are unloaded and stacked on to pallets. Employees place the goods on conveyor belts leading to a line sorter.
This sorter can lead the goods directly to a dispatch sorter, to the induction unit of the pre-sortation system or directly to the warehouse.
Kleingrewe cites Nike’s China Logistics Center (CLC) in Taicang, Jiangsu, the sports manufacturer’s largest distribution centre in Asia, in which his firm has a presence.