This month in Modern: Two automation playbooks
Michael Levans, Group Editorial Director -- Modern Materials Handling, 6/1/2009
If you've been searching for extraordinary examples of companies that have embraced materials handling automation you need to look no further than Modern's cover stories from this month and last. And if you read between the lines, you'll learn that there's a little more behind these impressive systems than just cool technology and productivity improvements.
Last month we had a first-hand look inside Kroger's "lights out" facility designed to receive and putaway full pallets, break them down and rebuild them into store-ready mixed pallets according to how they'll be placed on the store shelf—and do it all with practically no human intervention. Their goal was to change the way grocery warehousing is done—and their system may very well get them there.
This month Executive Editor Bob Trebilcock takes us inside Valpak's new production and distribution center in St. Petersburg, Fla., a greenfield facility that's being called one of the most advanced and automated manufacturing centers in the world (page 7). On the surface it sounds like a terrific example of inspired innovation out of pure necessity; but when you dig a little deeper you'll find that this Herculean effort is paying off on multiple levels since the design was tied directly to the company's 20-year growth strategy.
Valpak, the direct marketer responsible for the familiar blue envelope of coupons and promotions that arrives on the doorsteps of more than 45 million U.S. and Canadian homes, has not been generally known as a high-flying, technological innovator. In fact, Trebilcock reports that the last major system upgrade took place in their older facility, which is nearby the new site, back in the 1960s and 70s.
But when the company went through a 10-year stretch of significant growth, it was finding that antiquated printing processes and labor-intensive envelope stuffing were beginning to put a drag on productivity. According to David Fox, the company's vice president of manufacturing, "We had to add so much labor to keep up with our growth that we were getting less efficient as we grew."
What follows is not just a detailed story of a company applying automation and robotics to improve day-to-day processes. Rather, it's a tutorial on integrated thinking, where the long term goals of the boardroom are being executed inside the four walls of the manufacturing and distribution center.
"The thing that interests me the most these days is when we can show the intersection between materials handling and the business strategy," Trebilock told me after he finished this piece. "This story, like the Kroger story last month, is about much more then moving product around with greater efficiency."
So, if you're looking to champion a new automation project, put new life into old systems, or handle meteoric growth with minimal additional labor, you may want to take a page from these two playbooks.
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