This case history about Kloosterboer comes courtesy of Westfalia. It has been selected and edited by the MHM editorial staff for clarity, content and style.
Kloosterboer, a family owned and operated business, established in 1925, is one of the leading logistic companies in the Netherlands. Originally a wholesale vegetable business, today their emphasis is on warehousing, shipping, boat loading and customs for temperature controlled items; these items include fruit concentrates, fish and meat, garlic, dairy and potato products. In addition to these refrigerated and frozen items, goods such as sugar, nuts, timber and industrial products are stored at Kloosterboer’s facility as well.
Kloosterboer employs 390 individuals to manage nearly 22 million sq ft., and 340,000 tons of products, which are stored in eight strategically located facilities. The facilities are located in the Netherlands, Norway and the Faeroe Islands.
Kloosterboer, handling the logistics for 350 customers from 30 countries, has annual sales of nearly 75 million dollars a year.
Kloosterboer Delta Terminal – State of the Art Logistics from Westfalia
Owning one of the most technically advanced warehouses, Kloosterboer feels confident in offering their customers the highest level of reliability when it comes to handling their products.
To be able to take on the logistics for Farm Frites’ potato products proved to be a new and exciting challenge for Kloosterboer. They looked to Westfalia, a provider of automated storage solutions, to develop a concept that would fulfill the demands of Kloosterboer’s most challenging customer.
With the construction of a new, fully automated high rise storage system, with integrated Satellite® technology from Westfalia, they were able to meet the high performance demands of Farm Frites’. To that end, by handling the pallets automatically, Kloosterboer was able to reduce the manual labor needs, as well as to significantly increase the throughput rates.
Automatic Warehousing
Kloosterboer’s fully automatic cold storage high rise with Westfalia’s Satellite® technology has been in full operation at their Maasvlakte facility, located in the harbor area of Rotterdam, since the fall of 2003. The nearly three and a half million sq. ft. high rise contains 62,000 pallet positions, making it the largest of its type in Holland.
System Features:
- AS/RS with 4 S/RM'swith dual pallet loads
- 2 SRM's each aisle provide 100% redundancy
- Up to 12 deep pallet storage accessed via Satellite
- Throughput rates up to 360 pallets per hour
- Pallets transported from storage to shipping via chain conveyors, transfer cars (T-cars) and turntables
Input and Output efficiency Doubled
Four Storage and retrieval machines (S/RM's) travel at speeds of 656 ft/min horizontally and the Satellite® stores and retrieves pallets – up to 12 deep - at a speed of 295 ft/min; allowing the throughput rates to reach numbers as high as 360 pallets and hour.
A very high level of efficiency is achieved with a dual pallet Satellite® that Westfalia integrated into each of the S/RMs. Since the Satellite® is capable of carrying two pallets at the same time it has essentially doubled the throughput rates. In order to optimally arrange the flow of product, pallets are transported from storage to shipping via chain conveyors, transfer cars (T-Cars) and turntables.
Safely to their destination
When the pallets arrive at the warehouse, they are immediately checked for damage on the transverse side, via an automatic profile check station. Weighing scales ensure that the correct volume of product is present.
Two S/RMs in each aisle produce a 100% redundancy rate to all pallets, ensuring the availability of each pallet position – even if one of the cranes is not in operation.
Improved Storage and Material Flow
Westfalia also implemented a warehouse control and Warehouse Management System (WMS). By connecting the WMS to Kloosterboer’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system via an online two-channel Electronic Data Interface (EDI), it is now possible to have up-to-the-minute information on orders, product data, as well as information on products received and or shipped. This is especially important for the customer who may want to access information on their products, at a moment’s notice.
Automatically From the Producer to the Customer
“The reduction in personnel costs and time savings, which is a direct result from the reduction in manual labor, also contributed to the rapid return on investment”, says Alex Kloosterboer, Managing Director of Kloosterboer.
At Kloosterboer, the entire logistic process is now automated, making the storage and retrieval flexible and extremely efficient. Manual labor is reduced to a minimum and the logistic processes are controllable and traceable 24-7.
MHMonline.com welcomes relevant, exclusive case histories that explain in specific detail the business benefits that new software and material-handling equipment has provided to specific users. Send submissions to Clyde Witt([email protected]), MHM Editor-in-Chief. All submissions will be edited for clarity, content and style.
