Cold chain improvements using warehouse automation

The frozen food and cold supply chain industry is facing increasing challenges, with many companies in Australia and New Zealand struggling to keep up with rising energy costs, labour shortages and other issues.

At the 2023 Refrigerated Warehouse and Transport Association of Australia (RWTA) Conference on the Gold Coast, Sean Ledbury, Swisslog Head of Sales and Consulting, and Charles John, Swisslog Senior Sales Consultant, discussed how to overcome these challenges and maximise the operational footprint of a cold chain with warehouse automation.

According to Ledbury, one of the biggest challenges companies are facing is labour shortages. “Low temperatures make refrigerated warehouses harsh environments, where it is recommended that humans should spend minimal time to avoid hypothermia and other health and safety risks. Using automation to do tasks in freezer areas removes workers from these harsh environments, freeing them up to work in other, more suitable areas,” he said.

The cold chain industry is also facing other challenges including changing customer demands, new compliance regulations and energy consumption. Food production is facing increased challenges too, with water scarcity, soil degradation, deforestation and reduction in farmers all playing a part in making the supply chain more complex.

According to John, an automated high-bay chilled warehouse can reduce energy loads by up to 20% compared with conventional alternatives, reducing the energy bill and allowing for more storage within the same building footprint, maximising available space.

“Not only does it reduce the power bill, but it typically allows for four times more storage within the same building footprint, so you are maximising your use of the available space,” he said.

“This is becoming increasingly important, as industrial land continues to become more expensive in major cities across Australia and New Zealand. Adding capacity without having to purchase a new site can make for a superior ROI.”

In the cold chain, compliance is essential due to the harsh nature of chilled and deep freeze environments and the strict requirements food and beverage products need to adhere to.

Automation can help meet compliance regulations in a number of areas, such as:

• Providing automatic doors with airlocks to efficiently separate the storage area from the shipping area.
• Making sure the cold chain is respected from production to shipping.
• Providing an automatic connection with the production area and the shipping buffer in deep freeze temperatures.
• Creating a cleaner, safer environment, by not needing to use ice.
• Better goods management process and error-free traceability through advanced software.

“Software such as Swisslog’s SynQ can optimise warehouse operations and deliver a range of benefits. It can control order planning, order picking, consolidation, shipping, storage, receiving and putaway, and the benefits extend beyond these tasks, too,” Ledbury said.

SynQ is a Swisslog software that synchronises people, process and machines for efficient operations. It is a warehouse management system that can perform the task of a warehouse control system or a material flow system. It can also interact with enterprise resource planning and e-shop systems.

“In a cold environment, SynQ can control the placement of products, to make sure the right temperature is always maintained for optimum product integrity,” Ledbury said.

Top image credit: iStock.com/Juanmonino