What we have… We improve
February 1st 2009 Automated high bay warehouses can deliver huge productivity… when they work. With
age, however, comes increasing downtime. According to Paul Bradley, this is where MLOG,
with its own dedicated refurbishment division, comes into its own. Brendan Coyne reports
Although relatively new to the UK,
MLOG has pedigree: it was formed
by a management buyout of MAN's
logistics division in 2005. The same year,
the company gained its first UK contract for
NewsPrinters who print the Sun, the Times,
News of the World and the Daily Telegraph;
two ASRS high bay systems completed in
partnership with SDI Group (MLOG's UK
partner). Today, with firms reluctant to
commit capital to new projects, Bradley
says MLOG's refurbishment expertise –
across its own and competitors' systems – is
in demand.
"We do provide turnkey solutions for
Greenfield high bay warehouses, but there
might only be three or four built a year,"
says Bradley. "There is more opportunity for
refurbishment and we have a dedicated
refurbishment division that is hugely
experienced in refurbishing both our own
and competitors' equipment." He says that
while competitors are increasingly looking
into refurbishment, they may have
traditionally preferred to refurbish their
own equipment. "We have refurbished
equipment from numerous suppliers, so it's
not a risk for us anymore."
Take control
Bradley says ageing control systems, rather
than mechanical failure, are often the root
of ASRS problems.
"What tends to happen is that, even after
10 or 15 years, the mechanical elements of
a stacker crane, for example, are often in
pretty good shape – pallet handling cranes
are extremely robust machines. But 15 years
is a long time in terms of control systems: a
lot of the controls and components are no
longer supported, so you can't get spares;
the original suppliers no longer provide
maintenance and support for them. Often
clients are reliant on their own internal
maintenance people to keep things going as
best they can," says Bradley. "And when you
have to repair at component level,
downtime can be significant."
MLOG recently solved this kind of
problem for Braun's plant in Carlow,
Ireland. The result, claims Bradley, is an
increase in availability of up to 90 per cent.
"That's an extreme situation," he admits.
"Some clients, while they may be looking
for an improvement in availability, just want
to increase the lifetime of the cranes,
recognising that the equipment has paid
for itself and that it is worth reinvesting,
modernising the controls to deliver another
decade of productive operation."
Controls for pallet handling equipment
work on the same basic principles, and
Bradley says MLOG has developed a
modular controls upgrade suite. "The PLC,
the frequency inverters, the drives – all of
these can be exchanged with standard
elements, modular exchanges that we have
proven on previous refurbishments."
In many cases, says Bradley, the
interfacing itself is more bespoke. "We have
to interrogate the high level control
systems and understand, for example, the
communications between the crane PLC's
and the WMS, and the signalling exchange
in every scenario. It's a case-by-case
approach, but we can write the software
and develop the interfaces for the
individual application."
Partnering SDI Group
The company is set to announce another
major contract in the next few weeks to
replace competitors' cranes with MLOG's
own, interfacing them with the site's WMS.
Here the firm will use its own labour to
complete the job, with local post-contract
support allocated to SDI.
Bradley says the MLOG/SDI partnership
makes sense as both operate within the
same field of logistics automation, covering
more ground and unearthing more
opportunities.
"My work in the field complements SDI's
team and vice versa – they come across
jobs where it may be more suitable for us
to lead the project, I do likewise, Bradley
explains. "If it is a purely high bay ASRS
warehouse, the chances are, as at News
International, we would lead the project
using SDI installation labour. If, however, it
was a composite fulfilment type application
(including fulfilment, sortation, carton
conveying and a mini load store
replenished by a high bay warehouse and
controlled by a WMS), in that scenario
MLOG would supply the miniload cranes,
pallet cranes and pallet conveyor and SDI
would integrate it and act as the main
contractor," he says. "But it's very much
determined by the individual project."
With many industries currently holding
what they have, it follows that demand for
refurbishment will increase, which is good
news for the likes of MLOG. And Bradley is
confident that the firm's refurbishment
work will enhance its reputation, and
relationships, with those looking to build
new high bay warehouses when the
economy eventually recovers. More articles from SDI Group Limited: | 
