Upon its opening, Coop’s new central warehouse in Eskilstuna, Sweden, is set to be one of the largest fully automated food distribution centres (DCs) in Europe. Warehousing solutions provider SSI Schaefer has partnered with the supermarket chain to establish the automated logistics facility, and has released new details about the site.
Coop hopes the new automated DC will enable the efficient supply of fresh and dry goods to more than 800 of its stores.
Works are set to be finished by summer 2024, with further details being released to demonstrate the various capabilities of the new centre.
In 2021, the pair shared information publicly about the collaboration, with the past few years presenting some issues in terms of planning for the future as consumers’ behavioural habits have altered significantly.
The increase in order volume for Coop has meant ongoing changes to the solutions used at the site.
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Goods will arrive by railroad straight to the warehouse to minimise the site’s CO2 footprint, SSI Schaefer has said.
The goods receiving zone is equipped with the conveying system for pallets, which has already been completed.
High-bay warehouses (warehouses featuring high racks ranging from a height of 12m to more than 50m) in both chilled and ambient zones have been assembled and launched together with the pallet cranes that serve for storage and retrieval of goods for buffering.
When the items are needed for restocking the main storage area, they arrive at the depalletising station. The goods are then split into individual cases, before being transported by a bin conveyor to the storage area.
The warehousing firm’s 3D-Matrix Solution, which consists of shuttle vehicles, lifts and conveying systems, will be introduced as a buffer for cases. The storage locations are operated by SSI Flexi shuttles, which are responsible for storage, loading and retrieval.
After the cases are needed for the order, the SSI Flexi shuttles will transport them to the palletising station where robotised equipment will take care of putting the orders together for shipping.
Finally, assembled pallets are delivered to the buffer storage and are packed together by the final customer or route operator.
The latest developments in robotics and automated technologies for materials handling will be on show at the Robotics and Automation Exhibition, which will be held on 19-20 March 2024 at the NEC Birmingham. Register now to attend the UK’s biggest exhibition dedicated to robotics and automation, which is co-located with Britain’s biggest warehousing show, IntraLogisteX, where SSI Schaefer will exhibit at Stand 400.
