Fast-moving consumer goods company Henkel has moved its retail operation to DHL Supply Chain’s heavily automated COMAH facility, Manton Wood, in North Nottinghamshire.
DHL will store on average 7,500 pallets and manage the despatch of approximately 140 million units/cases and 6,000 orders a year, across 300 SKUs.
The Manton Wood site incorporates an automated storage and retrieval system, as well as advanced cranes designed to be 20% more energy efficient than the norm, which will handle approximately 75% of overall site volume.
According to DHL, robotic process automation (RPA) is used extensively for stock processes, removing the need for employees to produce reports or pull data manually from the system.
Instead, the RPA directly creates lists for automated picking, which takes stock to the co-packing area. Meanwhile, wrapping robots improve productivity and use less material.
Additional automation plans have been designed to further enhance the Henkel operation, including robot arms for pallet and product movement and AGVs to improve pallet picking safety.
These deployments are scheduled for later in 2022 and 2023.
Tanja Gilb, supply chain director for Western Europe at Henkel Beauty Care, said: “We have a long-standing relationship with DHL and we’re delighted that they have the infrastructure and services we need to take our business forward in line with our purposeful growth strategy.
“The Manton Wood site supports our plans to cut carbon emissions from our supply chain and has the automation technology to ensure we can cost effectively scale.”
The site is also operating one of the UK’s first all-electric shunt vehicles, capable of recharging during shift changeovers for continuous operation.
