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Coop relies on OPM in all temperature zones
Coop relies on OPM in all temperature zones
The retail chain Coop Norge Handels SA has automated the logistics processes of all assortment and temperature areas in its central goods distribution center near Oslo, thus achieving a significant gain in efficiency. The facility with a size of 52,000 square meters supplies some 1,200 stores across Norway with more than 17,000 different products. The system is able to pick up to 480,000 cases on a peak day.
Customer: Coop Norge Handels SA
The „Coop Logistikksenter Gardermoen (CLog)“, located close to the Oslo airport has many important functions within Coop's logistics structure: On the one hand, it serves as a regional distribution center for the area around Oslo, where Coop Norway generates some 40 percent of its revenue. In this region, CLog supplies the stores with goods from the full product range: Dry (+18 degrees C), fruits & vegetables (+12 degrees C / +7 degrees C), perishable (+2 degrees C), and frozen goods (-25 degrees C). On the other hand, the CLog acts as a distribution center for slow- and medium-movers for the dry goods and fresh product assortment - and thus as hub for four additional regional warehouses of Coop in Norway.
Location
Oslo
Industry sector
Retail / Distribution
Products
17,000 SKUs
Solutions
OPM, DPS, CPS, shipping buffer
Volume
480,000 picked cases per day
Special features of the project
WITRON broke new ground in pallet identification: Distribution centers in Scandinavia are supplied with plastic pallets that are equipped with integrated RFID transponders. They also use wooden pallets, which automatically receive a RFID label in the receiving area. Coop wanted to use both pallet types in the automated logistics system in a flexible manner. Scanning and processing the various methods places different demands on the control technology and the used scanner technology. This task was also successfully realized by WITRON so that both types can be easily identified and handled in the entire material flow.
Challenge
The WITRON standard system "Order Picking Machinery" (OPM) is implemented as a fully automated tote picking system and used at Coop in all temperature zones due to its high flexibility. The "Dynamic Picking System" (DPS) for picking small-volume items is used in the dry goods and fresh produce area. The "Car Picking System" (CPS) is used to pick bulky goods of the dry assortment. An automated shipping buffer optimizes the processes in the dispatch area. The material flows in all warehouse areas and temperature zones are intelligently designed and networked with each other so that the number of leftover pallets can be reduced to a minimum and to ensure maximum consolidation of customer orders in the logistics area where they are picked. The OPM storage and picking system has become one of the world's most successful systems in the area of case picking in food retail logistics. The OPM allows the store-friendly stacking of cases, totes, cartons, or PET bottles onto pallets or roll containers without the use of personnel. The heart of the system is the COM (Case Order Machine), which is capable of picking cases carefully and in a store-friendly sequence onto load carriers - the system output amounts to more than 500 picks per hour. The highly dynamic and automated picking of small parts in DPS is supported by a pick-by-light system. The DPS works according to the "goods-to-person"/”person-to-goods” principle. Depending on the order structure, the goods are arranged optimally in the pick front either permanently or on demand by stacker cranes. DPS allows direct storage and picking in an automated small parts warehouse (AS/RS). In the DPS, Coop picks dry goods and fresh products not in a "classic way" from tote into tote, but from tote directly into the shipping carton. The CPS storage system ensures significant ergonomic improvements in the conventional logistics areas and enables short driving distances in the distribution center. Especially in Scandinavia, where particularly strict legal regulations apply, ergonomic work processes are a very important criterion for the successful operation of logistics systems. The CPS is a manual picking system for route-optimized picking of large-volume and bulky cases onto pallets or roll containers.
Customer opinion
Since automation also allows a higher degree of centralization, significant savings in inventory have also been achieved. As a result, the total cost and tote savings amount to some 50 percent. And the joint path is not finished yet: Coop will use more WITRON systems in the future.