With the slogan “Welcome creators of tomorrow”, the new Engineers Day initiative promoted by Hispack and led by Enginyers Industrials de Catalunya (EIC) aimed to highlight the work of engineering professionals in the packaging industry. With a day focused on the application of new technologies in intralogistics, it also promoted networking in order to address the challenges linked to digitalisation and sustainability.
The director general of the Col-legi d’Enginyers Industrials de Catalunya, Pere Homs, highlighted the human and professional technological component of engineering professionals. For Homs, “sustainability and digitalisation are fundamental today to be competitive in a global environment. Process elements, such as innovation and internationalisation, which have already been integrated into the DNA of companies, continue to be so. What is different today is the technological aspect”.
For his part, the president of the Official Council of Spanish Engineering and Industrial Associations, César Franco, stressed the need for engineers in the development of processes, products and the manufacture of machinery. Not only does the packaging industry account for 3% of Spain’s GDP, but it is also responsible for other types of industry, such as the agri-food industry, which is currently the country’s main industry. In Franco’s words, “packaging is in a continuous process of transformation towards two very significant vectors: sustainability and technification”.
Conrad Cardona, vice-president of the Logistics Commission of the Col-legi d’Enginyers Industrials de Catalunya and Regional Head South Europe of SSI SCHAEFER, moderated the event in which Peter Guan, General Manager Europe of Hai Robotics, Gerard Rifà, Logistic Manager of Gepork, and Víctor Escanciano, Logistics & Information Technology Director of Condis Supermercats, participated.
Condis case: ten years living with automation, with Víctor Escanciano
Condis is a Catalan chain of local supermarkets, with more than 700 points of sale, in a dual model of own shop and franchisee.
The approach to automation arose in 2009, when a logistics infrastructure plan was being reviewed. The dilemma was to replicate the existing warehouse model or to go a step further. One of the challenges they faced was the high concentration of outlets in the Barcelona metropolitan region, around 88% at the time, as well as maintaining the lifespan of the facility.
The team decided to focus on the picking process, which is much more labour-intensive and labour-intensive.
Once the board gave the go-ahead for the project, they began to consider what it would look like. The complexity lay in managing the change, especially internally, given the transformation it would entail, especially considering that Condis’ business was focused on buying supermarket chains and opening shops, but not on setting up robots or doing anything of this scale.
The project consisted of different phases. The first phase corresponded to the logistical decision and contracting part; the second phase, implementation and change management; and the third and final phase to reach the objective. The whole process took about 13 months. These are long projects because they are large installations with a significant amount of civil works. And this means that they cannot start until the project has been finalised in detail in case there are construction requirements for pits, slabs, foundations and other unforeseen events that can lead to cost overruns.
For Escanciano, change management is what guarantees that the project will work, identifying the stakeholders to be involved, without forgetting that the key is people. In this sense, it is necessary to take into account the staff of the affected platform -from where the future operators of the installation will come from-, the works council -explaining to them that the objective of the project implies an opportunity and not a threat-, the suppliers and the points of sale -both own and franchised-.
The big change at an internal level in the logistics area is that we went from managing a warehouse to an order factory with all that this entails in terms of maintenance, incorporation of new profiles, etc.
In terms of volumes, 70% of dry picking is currently being prepared automatically. That means 82,000 boxes in one day, in three shifts. The rest is done with a pick to voice system that has been in operation since 2007. More picking could be done but it would also require much more space and there is a physical restriction to set up more machines. In this sense, it is a system that, despite being 10 years old, is still in use, at least for the preparation of dry boxes. In addition, the COM (Case Order Machine) is very easy to maintain, as well as to manage breakdowns, and what is set up is the roll automatically.
These projects have a long-term return, they are not recovered in 3 or 5 years, but it is a change of paradigm and Escanciano considers that it has to be approached as a strategic change. As an example, the system was key to boosting the convenience store channel. They are much smaller shops, which work with less assortment and would have been very inefficient in a conventional store.
New logistics centre with the Skypod system for the preparation of unit picking, with Gerard Rifà
The Gepork Group has been operating in the veterinary market since 1979 and are pioneers in the introduction of artificial insemination in pigs. They distribute medicines, feed, equipment, consumable accessories, other hygiene and disinfection products. In total they handle about 13,000 references with about 1,000 orders per day with many different types of customers, with veterinary distribution generating the highest turnover.
In the early days, the company had four different warehouses, all physically separate, and with operations independent of each other. In addition, they had another warehouse for pallet rental. The issue was quite complicated, they were above 85% occupancy and everything was a manual process. In addition, the company decided to start an expansion project, so a significant growth was foreseen.
With all this, it was essential to look for another site or to completely turn around the company’s logistics, fulfilling a series of conditions and requirements for the new centre. These were as follows:
- Grouping all logistics facilities in a single site
- Looking for a versatile and efficient facility
- Existence of many different types of customers and products.
- Strong roots of the family business in the Osona region of Catalonia. This limited the availability of square metres
- The transition could not affect customer service
With all these conditions, they selected a site of about 10,000 metres and finally opted for the Skypod option, a very compact, modular solution, which fulfilled the requirement for flexibility and versatility and is also a standard product.
What they decided on is a layout with three distinct zones: a dock area, both for entry and exit. They also have a more conventional pallet area and in the third area of the warehouse they have installed the skypod, which occupies more or less half of the warehouse, where they do most of the picking.
After a case study, they were left with a system of around 22,000 storage bins, with 25 robots and 3 manual preparation and entry stations.
The new project brought with it some challenges and learnings:
- Skypod is a unit picking system. One of the challenges was to find a balance in order to satisfy the Gepork Group’s wide variety of customers.
- Ensuring quality in picking and verifying the product with its barcode on entry and exit.
- The variety of suppliers made it difficult to read different types of codes.
- Lack of agility in cancelling operations, which meant creating processes to avoid errors.
- Culture shock of moving from a fully manual process to something so automatic. Investment was made in training for shift managers so that they understood these processes very well. This was also very positive for the company, in Rifà’s words.
As for the results and improvements observed, the expert highlighted the following:
- Rapid adaptation of workers and immediate improvement in performance.
- 65% reduction in preparation errors
- Ability to increase storage quickly
- Ability to increase throughput without changing the layout
- Reliable production planning thanks to stable performance
- As a standard product, the manufacturer can offer system enhancements.
Hai Robotics, with Peter Guan
Hai Robotics is a pioneer and leader in autonomous crate handling robot (ACR) systems. Founded in 2016, its goal is to equip every warehouse and factory with logistics robots. In this way, the company offers flexible, intelligent and efficient warehouse automation solutions through cutting-edge robotic technology and artificial intelligence algorithms.
Peter Guan, General Manager Europe, gave an overview starting with the current market. As economic factors he pointed out that the significant increase in interest rates in a short period of time has made investment in automation more expensive. On the other hand, GDP growth in Europe is sluggish, negatively affecting investment, and this in turn leads to a decrease in sales growth of companies in Europe. In addition, the effects of the war in Ukraine and other geopolitical factors, coupled with an ageing population and rising labour costs in Europe, are real challenges for the market, according to the expert.
In this respect, Guan sees long-term opportunities, based on increased demand for logistics automation due to labour shortages and rising labour costs. He also highlighted the development and rapid advancement in robotic technologies, batteries and artificial intelligence (AI).
Focusing on Hai Robotics’ strategy and positioning, the expert highlighted several points:
- Focus on being a supplier of robotic products, not a systems integrator.
- Strong R&D capability
- Rapid component supply chain.
- Strategic partnerships with integrators and co-development with end users.
Acknowledgements
Engineers Day also became a platform to highlight the work of companies and organisations in the logistics, automation and robotics sector, as well as their innovative projects. The Dean of the College of Industrial Engineers of Catalonia, Narcís Armengol, presented the Engineers Day – Hispack honorary award to ICIL (Institute for Careers, Innovation in Logistics & Supply Chain) for its significant contribution to logistics development. Armengol focused on talent, stating that the lack of talent prevents companies from adopting new technologies, which affects their competitiveness and the economy.
In turn, the president of the General Council of Engineers, César Franco, received recognition for 75 years of the institution, highlighting the evolution of Spain and the industry, and underlining the need to reinvent itself again today to provide new solutions and more resources.
The event continued with a Hispack-Engineering dialogue, moderated by Laura Ivern, deputy director of the Col-legi d’Enginyers Industrials de Catalunya. Jordi Bernabeu, president of the Hispack Organising Committee, highlighted the importance of engineering in the manufacture of industrial and packaging machinery and innovation.
Cristina Benavides, Hispack collaborator
