New load recovery access system developed
December 1st 2011 To enable further expansion,
The Weetabix Food
Company decided to invest
in a state of the art pallet
warehouse. TGW was awarded the
design and integration of this
warehouse solution.
From its base in the heart of the
English countryside, The Weetabix
Food Company has been creating
breakfast cereals since 1932. The
business has expanded significantly
since its creation and the company
now employs over 2,000 people
around the world. The Weetabix
range of breakfast cereals isn't just
popular in the UK – they export to
over 80 countries, from the Middle
East and South America to Europe
and South East Asia.
To free up space within the
warehouse complex at the Weetabix
headquarters in Burton Latimer,
Northamptonshire, and to reduce
the number of pallets currently
held in off site storage, the
company decided to invest in an
automated storage and retrieval
system (AS/RS). TGW designed
and integrated the new automated
warehouse solution into the
existing operation.
TGW designed a cost effective
solution for Weetabix, where the
pallets are conveyed and handled
two pallets high, to optimise
throughput and space. There are
22,000 pallet locations in the
warehouse, serviced by three highly
dynamic fully automatic TGW
Magnus pallet handling cranes,
supplying multiple pallet deep
storage tubes with the TGW Muli
satellite vehicles. This new solution
allows for a performance of storing
and retrieving approximately 200
loads per hour.
"We have designed and
developed a new load recovery
access system for this type of
application," says Philip Steeds,
sales director of TGW. "It allows
safe access for qualified operators
into the storage tubes to recover a
failed or damaged load and can
also be deployed in support of the
maintenance and health and safety
activity. The Magnus & Muli is
used to deploy and recover the
access cages into and from these
storage tubes."
The solution will be integrated
in the existing facilities at
Weetabix' headquarters in Burton
Latimer.
To allow the current operations
to continue while the new solution
was installed, TGW phased the
installation works and coordinate
every step with the existing
operations. From November 2010
the new warehouse solution has
supplied customers around the
world with the Weetabix Family of
Brands.
Damian Magill, chief engineer at
Weetabix says: "The design is very
robust, showing really good
performance from a utilisation
point of view.We have maximised
footprint by use of the intelligent
Muli system and taken the
available pallet storage from circa
12k to 22k within the same
footprint, a very siginificant
increase.
"A key health & safety benefit is
minimising truck movements
through the space, reducing the
risk of accidents." More articles from TGW Limited: | 
