When it comes to grocery retailing, staying competitive often comes down to speed. Fresh fruit and vegetables only stay fresh for so long, and any delays in delivering produce can lead to food waste and unhappy customers.
Recently, Mercadona, a grocery chain with 1,600+ stores across Spain and Portugal, found a way to tackle that need for speed. With help from warehouse automation specialist Cimcorp, the retailer set its sights on cutting down on delivery delays and optimizing order distribution flows in one of its largest distribution centers (DCs).
A MODULAR APPROACH
The retailer’s automation journey began with its San Isidro distribution center, which ships a daily volume of 118,800 totes to 171 of the supermarket chain’s stores. The company selected Cimcorp’s grocery retail intralogistics solution—which includes automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), automated guided vehicles (AGVs), order-picking robots, and more—to modernize its supply chain and reduce order leadtimes at its DC.
With a plan in place, Cimcorp’s team got to work, first designing a modular control architecture for the DC. An integrated management software solution controls all the different work zones in the warehouse, allowing all of the equipment to work in synchronization. With the architecture software in place, Cimcorp added several automated storage, handling, and order picking capabilities in different temperature zones to streamline the fulfillment process and cut the time from order receipt to shipment to eight hours.
FROM FIELD TO STORE IN 24 HOURS
In daily operations, the new automated process unfolds with tightly choreographed precision, according to a video created by Cimcorp. After pallets of fresh produce are unloaded from trucks, the intralogistics system provides a pallet infeed profile check before AGVs swing into action and transport the pallets to automated picking modules.
From the picking modules, the AGVs deliver the pallet stack to an automated depalletizer that breaks it down into individual cases and delivers the containers to robots. Robots then ferry the produce containers to hygienic storage systems to await picking. As an order travels through the DC, the system provides full tracking and tracing capabilities.
The order picking process is also automated. Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) take care of the heavy lifting and pick orders according to the customer’s store layout. The automated system builds store-friendly pallets, prepares a plan to maximize the delivery truck’s capacity, and then delivers the order to an automated wrapper before the order is loaded onto the truck.
Since implementing Cimcorp’s intralogistics solution, the retailer is now able to deliver fresh and seasonal produce from field to stores within 24 hours.
ADDED BENEFITS
Beyond its ability to process produce orders in record time, the new automated system has allowed the retailer to provide better service to customers.
“The best part [of the system] has been the robustness of the application; we haven’t had operational surprises with real orders, and we’ve been able to provide a guaranteed service to our [customers],” said Javier Blasco, logistics solutions purchasing manager for Mercadona, in a release.
Cimcorp’s intralogistics solution has also led to lower costs and a safer workplace. With robots handling the heavy lifting and repetitive tasks, Mercadona’s employees enjoy work roles that are less tiring and more productive, the companies say. These factors have helped with staff retention.
Notably, Cimcorp’s modular control architecture software also provides the agility and flexibility needed to handle unpredictability in consumer demand.
“The successful collaboration between Cimcorp and Mercadona demonstrates the potential of automation to revolutionize the food supply chain and ensure sustainable growth in the grocery retail industry,” said Kari Miikkulainen, director of warehouse and distribution industry sales at Cimcorp, in a press release.
