Fachartikel
professional article
Automation from KUKA Systems helps beverage companies
achieve major savings by streamlining distribution
The food and beverage makers
Sterling Heights, MI | Augsburg, Germany – When leading beverage companies want to streamline retail distribution, they turn to KUKA Systems to design
and install integrated pallet-building lines that provide a major increase in
throughput over manual operations.
KUKA Systems’ recently deployed one such layer palletizing and case picking
setup for one of North America’s leading beverage companies, helping lower
overall supply chain costs. Such a setup permits beverage makers to move
completed order pallets from a regional distribution center directly to large retail
KUKA Systems GmbH
Markus Meier
Marketing | Communications
Bluecherstrasse 144
86165 Augsburg | GERMANY
Phone +49 821 797-2483
Fax +49 821 797-1951
markus.meier@kuka.de
www.kuka-systems.com
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outlets, shortening the distribution path. These pallets had been assembled
manually at smaller, often overburdened local warehouses, which is time- and
labor-intensive.
Automation is essential to the changing beverage industry. Many manufacturers
have adopted a similar strategy of building customer-ready pallets regionally.
Not only can an automated line handle large volume, but automating palletbuilding ensures greater order fulfilment accuracy and more efficient marshalling
of completed pallets. Less manual lifting and fewer forklifts darting about a
rates.
KUKA Systems GmbH
Bluecherstrasse 144
86165 Augsburg
Germany
The recently completed installation marked the first KUKA Systems North Amer-
Registered:
Augsburg HRB 7921
DUNS 31-888-0846
warehouse should result in fewer workplace accidents and lower insurance
ica served as general contractor, while utilizing technologies launched successfully with other food and beverage makers. “We’ve been a supplier of specialized technology solutions, and were able to draw on those experiences to serve
Phone +49 821 797-0
Fax +49 821 797-1991
info@kuka.de
www.kuka-systems.com
as general project contractor,” says Aaron Corcoran, Director – Logistics, KUKA
Systems North America. “This success underscores our strength as an integrator, building on our experience from designing and building automated manufacturing lines for the automotive, aerospace, alternative energy and other manufacturing sectors.”
Board of Directors:
Lawrence A. Drake
(CEO)
Frank Klingemann
(President)
Walter Bollinger
(CFO)
The recently deployed system can process 5,000 cases per hour. It features
KUKA Systems’ automated high speed layer-picking system as well as its layerforming and mixed palletizing cell. Handling of the highest demand products –
approximately 65% of the customer order volume assembled at that regional
center – is fully automated. That cell features KUKA Systems’ state-of-the-art
layer pick head on a robot arm that lifts cases from underneath, reducing the
risk of product damage associated with traditional robot- or gantry-mounted
grippers that use clamps or vacuum technology to grab cases from the top or
sides.
“By combining KUKA Systems’ patented layer-picking and mixed layer-building
technology with strategic order sequencing logic, our system is able to handle
peak volume while optimally building and staging pallets for loading onto trucks,”
says Corcoran. “KUKA’s overall system design of layer-picking and layerforming provides a system that works intuitively, reliably and accurately, which is
the goal of any world class automated order picking system in the logistics
world.”
About KUKA Systems - North America (www.kukanao.com)
KUKA Systems Corp North America, a Michigan-based company, is part of the KUKA Systems
Group of Augsburg, Germany, a leading global supplier of flexible automation systems for the logistics, automotive, aerospace, energy and industrial solutions sectors with more than 3500 employees
worldwide.
KUKA Systems Corp is a world leader in automated picking and palletizing systems and logistics for
warehouses and distribution centers in general industry. Its fields of competence include end-of-line
palletizing, depalletizing, mixed product palletizing, and engineering and consulting services in
connection with overall warehouse and distribution center storage and order fulfillment generation.
For further information, please contact:
KUKA Systems Corp North America
Aaron Corcoran
Director – Logistics
Tel. +1 586-795-2000 x 5136
Email aaron.corcoran@kukanao.com
PR Toolbox, Inc.
Martin Wendland
Tel +1 416-368-6636
Email: mwendland@pr-toolbox.com