Automation: A Positive Disruptor in Cold Chain Storage

The cold chain industry covers a variety of products - from dairy to frozen foods to fresh produce. And while these products are essentials in life, they pose various challenges compared to dry goods and other non-perishable products, particularly regarding warehousing and storage. Specifically, the cold chain industry requires precise temperature control, strict inventory management and quick order fulfillment to ensure quality and safety.

Cold storage facilities serving supermarkets and restaurants deal with mixed, small-batch, fast-turnover inventory. Managing goods by expiry dates, best-before and delivery info is crucial. This often involves constant pallet storage, retrieval and picking operations.

Traditionally, such facilities relied on manual labor for tasks like picking, packing and inventory management. While effective to an extent, manual labor in such settings is also often characterized by inefficiencies, increased costs and human error. However, the rise of automation has led to more streamlined and optimized operations. As a leader in automated solutions for the cold chain industry, Daifuku Intralogistics America is poised to transform cold chain storage.

Discover how Daifuku Intralogistics America's solutions can enhance and optimize your cold chain storage operations. Learn more below:

Importance of Cold Storage

Cold storage plays a critical role in ensuring the safety and longevity of perishable goods. Maintaining precise temperature control is vital to prevent spoilage, protect consumers, and avoid costly product recalls. Beyond safety, effective cold storage extends shelf life, preserves product quality, optimizes space, and enhances transportation efficiency.

With decades of experience and deep expertise, Daifuku Intralogistics America leads the way in transforming cold chain storage through advanced automation and cutting-edge innovations. Our tailored solutions ensure seamless, efficient, and scalable operations, helping businesses meet all the demands of the modern cold chain. Discover more in the next section.

Daifuku's Solutions for Transforming Cold Chain Storage

Automation is set to be a transformative force across various industries, and cold chain storage is no exception. The right solutions can streamline productivity, minimize human error, and drive cost savings while ensuring compliance with regulatory standards.

Consider implementing the following solutions in your cold chain storage operations:

Daifuku Intralogistics America WES Software System

• Dainamics Warehouse Execution Software: This powerful software optimizes warehouse processes, ensuring smooth coordination between automated systems and workforce activities.

Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS)

• Unit Load Pallet AS/RS (Single, Double, and Multi-Deep): These advanced systems automatically store and retrieve palletized goods using highly efficient mechanical processes. They significantly increase storage density by allowing flexible placement of pallets in various locations and achieve up to 99.9% picking accuracy, reducing the reliance on manual labor while enhancing overall efficiency.

• Mini Load AS/RS: This system is designed for handling smaller items like cases and totes, offering improved efficiency and maximizing storage space without sacrificing accessibility.

• D3 High-Density Pallet Shuttle: A solution designed for high-density pallet storage, the D3 shuttle system optimizes retrieval processes, enabling efficient stacking and quick access to stored pallets, cases, and totes.

• Shuttle Rack M: Known for its flexibility, this system boosts both storage density and retrieval speed, making it ideal for fast-paced, dynamic operations in cold storage environments.

Storage Transfer Vehicles (STV’s)

• Sort Transfer Vehicles (STV's): These rail-guided vehicles are specialized in sorting and transporting heavy loads, such as pallets, within warehouse environments. STV's deliver cost-effective and efficient solutions for complex sorting applications. When integrated with AS/RS systems, they create a highly productive and streamlined workflow. Additionally, freezer-rated STV's are available, specifically designed to meet the demands of cold chain operations.

Additional Solutions

• Robotic Layer Picking: This technology automates the process of selecting and stacking items onto pallets, further enhancing operational efficiency.

• IO-EYE MOS SCADA: This Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system provides real-time monitoring and control of warehouse operations, enhancing overall efficiency and compliance.

Key Benefits of Daifuku's Automated Cold Chain Solutions

Safety. Efficiency. Sustainability.

Those are three of the key benefits that tend to be synonymous with Daifuku Intralogistics America’s automated solutions for cold chain storage and warehousing. Here's a closer look at how each of these solutions promotes safer, more efficient and more sustainable environments:

• Safety: Automation reduces manual labor in extreme settings, like cold environments, lowering injury risk and making work environments safer.

• Enhanced efficiency: Daifuku's automated systems speed up storage and retrieval processes, leading to quicker order fulfillment and better space utilization - which is especially important in cold environments.

• Sustainability: Optimized space use and energy reduction decrease the facility's carbon footprint, while precise inventory control cuts waste for a greener supply chain. Modern automation systems also tend to consume less energy than conventional methods, which can further support sustainability initiatives. Contact us today to learn more about the sustainability benefits of our systems. Many of our solutions help support LEED accreditation.

• Quality: Ensuring quality throughout the cold chain is a must. These solutions enable users to do more than just streamline efficiency and productivity, but also maintain a high level of quality.

Transparency and visibility are other key benefits of Daifuku Intralogistics America's solutions. Integrated systems offer an ecosystem that enhances visibility throughout the entire supply chain and can be managed through a central platform.

In transitioning from traditional manual distribution centers (DCs) to automated systems, third-party logistics (3PL) providers and food production companies stand to gain significant advantages. Automation not only reduces overhead costs but also enhances service levels and lowers energy expenses.

By leveraging robotic stacker cranes, companies can achieve a footprint reduction of over 50%, as these cranes can access higher shelves, thus minimizing property costs and taxes. Additionally, automation contributes to substantial energy savings; a smaller roof area, necessitated by a reduced building footprint, helps mitigate heat gain—up to 70% in low-temperature facilities—thereby cutting cooling costs.

The adoption of low oxygen fire suppression systems further enhances safety by preventing fires rather than merely extinguishing them, thanks to the reduced ignition potential in a hypoxic environment. Moreover, automation improves operational efficiency with features like smaller pallet doors and sensor-triggered freezer access control, which limit door openings and reduce refrigeration load.

Overall, automation enables greater flexibility, allowing companies to attract more contracts while maintaining a high level of service and cost-efficiency.

Daifuku Intralogistics America Expertise

Daifuku Intralogistics America is proud to partner with Blue Bell Creameries to implement a cutting-edge Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS) in their new freezer warehouse, designed specifically for ice cream storage.

This state-of-the-art system features five aisles, accommodating over 8,500 storage locations, and two STV loops to efficiently handle production inputs and shipping outputs.

The system includes Daifuku Intralogistics America our technology.

Additionally, the system includes optional receiving pallet conveyors for streamlined production flow, as well as inbound and shipping catwalks for enhanced efficiency. This innovative solution will not only optimize Blue Bell's cold storage capabilities but also set a new standard for automation in the frozen food industry.

Contact Daifuku Intralogistics America Today

With over 45 years of cold chain experience, we are pioneering a new era of efficiency and reliability, Daifuku knows how to deliver success to our customers.

Daifuku has been providing logistics systems for cold storage environments to a wide range of customers since 1973. For more information on how Daifuku Intralogistics America's innovative automation solutions like AR/RS, storage transfer vehicles, automatic guided vehicles and autonomous mobile robots can help take your cold chain storage to the next level, contact us today.

Sources

Modern Materials Handling,

Logistics Management,

Food Logistics.

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