The inauguration of the new fully automated warehouse facility marks an important milestone for Sanistål.
“The robotic facility significantly increases our degree of automation and makes us even more cost-effective. The robots create space for us to continue the sales growth of Sanistål in the future,” says Christian B. Lund, who is the Managing Director of Sanistål.
Sanistål's new robotic warehouse is an AutoStore system, built in collaboration with the company Element Logic.
The facility accommodates a total of 48,400 bins of stock items. In total, 52 robots move systematically and purposefully around the facility via an intelligent rail system, retrieving bins with the products that customers have ordered. The robots bring the bins to special picking stations where warehouse employees are ready to pack and send the goods to Sanistål's customers.
When the robots retrieve the goods, the entire process is almost three times faster than before, when employees drove around on small carts to collect items from the warehouse. Once the system is fully operational by the end of 2021, the robotic facility will handle more than 55 percent of the goods flow at Sanistål's central warehouse.
“The AutoStore system makes our warehouse much more efficient. At the same time, automation gives us entirely new opportunities to scale up at short notice when we need to. Previously, it took several weeks to train new employees. Now it only requires a few days of training before they can start working in the warehouse,” says Stephan Schuler, who is the Supply Chain Director at Sanistål.
He reports that the construction and implementation of the large robotic facility have exceeded all expectations.
“It is a very flexible system, and it is quite simple to expand capacity and increase the number of robots as we grow in Sanistål,” says Stephan Schuler.
The new AutoStore system uses significantly less energy compared to previous systems, thus supporting Sanistål's sustainable agenda.
Moreover, the robotic system offers better opportunities for co-packaging items, so customers will henceforth receive all their items combined in one package. Until now, multiple packages were often sent to the same customer if the goods came from different product areas, but with the help of the robots, Sanistål can avoid sending more packages than necessary in the future.
“It is both a quality improvement and a clear environmental benefit that our customers will handle fewer packages and receive less cardboard and plastic. We expect to significantly reduce our packaging consumption, reinforcing our goal of being the preferred green supplier for our customers,” says Christian B. Lund.