| | 
The handling problem that 3663 First for Foodservice faced its two Regional Distribution Centres at Royton and Banbury needed an innovativeapproach. Industrial Automation Ltd helped solving it by inventing a machine that transfers a pallet full of trays onto a set of dolleys.
3663 First for Foodservice is one of the UK’s leading foodservice wholesale distributor. The business offers a range of services to the whole industry and deliver ambient, grocery, frozen, fresh, chilledand non-food items to approximately 30,000 customers in the catering industry.
They needed a machine for a particular contract handling fresh chicken for Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). KFC has been so impressed with 3663’s approach to the contract and in particular the innovations that were being implemented - of which the new machine is part- that it awarded 3663 ‘Best New Supplier’ early in 2006. The particular challenge for IAL was that the machines are operating in a chilled part of the Regional Distribution Centre (RDC) where temperatures are kept between –2 and 2oC; this presents problems with condensation and the performance of lubricants for moving parts.
In 2004, 3663won the contract for KFC which includes the movement of fresh chickento the RDCs in 1.5kg trays containing a minimum of 25kg of chicken. Each tray can potentially weigh up to 30kg, which is in excess of the 25kg that regulations recommend as a maximum weight for manual handling. The contract involves each RDC handling between 2,000 and 3,500 trays a day, which are transported on wooden pallets. They will then be de-palletised onto dolleys in stacks of six. Most of KFC’s restaurants take delivery of several stacks of six trays on dolleys, but need the flexibility to take part stacks of less than six. This contract would require eight 3663 RDC staff to perform the operation over the course of an 8.5 hour shift.
The contract was due to begin in February2005. In April 2004, Phil Oliver, Supply Chain Manager worked with 3663’s Health & Safety team to carry out a risk assessment on the procedure. They decided that manual handling was not appropriate and soughtto automate the process of transferring the stacks from pallets to dolleys. Not only would this optimise productivity, but it would reduce the risk of injury to staff from stooping, lifting and turning. He investigated two feasible options: to automatically pick 100% of the trays, or to have 80% automated with 20% handled manually. After performinga cost-benefit analysis, Phil estimated that the 100% option would befour times the cost as well as exposing 3663 to greater risk if a machine were to break down, because they would have no manual capacity inplace.
Phil contacted Industrial Automation Ltd because of their experience in bespoke automation solutions – particularly in the food processing sector. Not only did Phil require a machine that was capable of quickly and efficiently transferring the produce trays, therewere additional constraints with regard to the floorspace available and he also sought a payback time of two years. In order to achieve theproductivity levels, the machine would need to complete each cycle intwo minutes. No existing machinery was capable of performing the task– particularly due to the low temperatures involved.
Over thecourse of six months, IAL developed a machine in which a pallet load of 30 trays is driven into one end of the machine; at the other end ofthe machine, five dolleys are put into position and kept in place by ametal bar. The trays are lifted and the pallet is pushed out of the way, before the five dolleys are brought into place. This movement takes just 60 seconds with the total transfer taking less than two minutesand is carried out by just two operatives. Part of the development involved IAL re-designing the dolleys, which are made by JR Trolleys ofCranfield in order to centralise the trays on the dolleys to ensure stability of the stack. There are light guards on the entry and exit aswell as perimeter guarding around the rest of the machine, to preventinjury to operatives. Phil sums up, “IAL have come up with a unique machine – we have the only two of its kind in the world at present; it has met and exceeded our expectations.”
| |
