Walkers makes a crisp job of palletising snacks in Coventry
Pallet logistics systems supplier CSi has completed a £3.7M project to design and install an automated sortation and palletising system for Walkers' snacks factory in Coventry.
It has replaced the former manual handling process and now works round the clock with only three staff, helping to dispatch products to Walkers' distribution centres. Operational since late 2007, the system is handling around 800 pallets a day of Walkers' snack brands including Doritos, Monster Munch, Quavers and Squares.
Cartons containing products from any one of 26 stock-keeping units (SKUs) arrive at random from Walkers' production at the rate of around 60 a minute, on six conveyors. The CSi accumulation conveyor includes a buffer deck with an advanced break and release mechanism, ensuring that containers are handled with care.
As each carton enters the system, scanners read the bar code and direct it to one of 26 buffer conveyor lanes, ranged on three levels on an upper mezzanine floor. Two CSi high-speed palletisers build up complete pallets of a single SKU, which are then lowered to the ground floor for automatic shrink-wrapping and collection.
Contact: CSi; Tel: 01244 341298
