From SCDigest's On-Target E-Magazine
- March 11, 2013 -
Logistics News: Different Perspectives on ROI Drive More Aggressive Adoption of Distribution Automation in Europe than US, Expert Says
End-to-End Automated DCs becoming Commonplace in Europe, Marc Wulfraat Says; A More Strategic View
SCDigest Editorial Staff
A variety of factors are pushing companies in Europe to adopt highly automated distribution center systems, one of which is a more longer term view of the business and return on investment.
That according to Marc Wulfraat, president of MWPVL International, a consulting firm that has recently done a lot of work in the Euro market and seen many of these systems first hand over the last 18 months.
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| Wulfraat says there is simply a different mindset regarding the payback period from that level of automation - with US companies generally looking for faster ROI than many European companies will accept. |
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What Do You Say?
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"What we've seen [in Europe] is a significant adoption rate of automation that is far ahead of what we have here in North America," Wulfraat said during a recent interview on the weekly supply chain video news broadcast from our Supply Chain Television Channel and CSCMP.
In the manufacturing area, especially in what is often called the "fast moving consumer goods" sectors such as food, beverage and paper products, Wulfraat said, "Europeans are well ahead of us. The facilities that have going up over there are upwards of 150 feet high, and the entire systems that these facilities are designed around are for handling pallets in pairs, rather than single unit loads."
Moving everything in pallet pairs enables companies to almost double-up throughput of a facility using the same square footage, Wulfraat notes.
As an example, Wulfraat says that "as pallets come off the production lines, they are moved horizontally to the high bay warehouse in pallet pairs either through overhead monorails, inverted monorails that are floor-mounted, with laser-guided vehicles with double pallet capabilities, or by conveyors."
Regardless of approach, those pallets are usually moving two at a time, Wulfraat said. "Even the AS/RS systems in Europe are twin-masted, and have double pallet capabilities for movement and storage, so everything is doubled up even out to the loading dock," he says.
The automation continues at the dock, Wulfraat says, with prevalent use of automated truck-loading (ATL) technology, Wulfraat also noted.
"You see 24 pallets being loaded at a time without human intervention in the space of just 10 minutes," he says.
Retailers also Automating
In addition to highly automated systems on the manufacturing side, retailers, wholesalers and other more pure distribution companies in Europe are also deploying automation, but of a different sort, Wulfraat.
"What you are seeing there is a tremendous adoption rate of goods-to-person type technologies," Wulfraat says. "And we're not talking about your grandfather's carousel, but multi-shuttle type systems [from Dematic] for case picking. There are literally thousands of these shuttle carriers out there right now."
(Distribution/Materials Handling Story Continues Below
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Labor costs, regulations and the level and intensity of unionism are often higher in Europe as well, giving companies another incentive to invest in automation systems that reduce the number of workers needed in a DC. This is especially true for new construction, because once a facility is in place, laying off workers can be very difficult in some locations.
