Automatic Pallet Shuttle with transfer cars for logistics operator Luís Simões

In Spain, not far from Madrid, Luís Simões has set up a modern, 710,418-square-foot logistics center.

Mecalux has equipped this automated warehouse with the Pallet Shuttle system, as well as transfer cars, pallet racks and an inverted electrified monorail system.

Luís Simões is a logistics operator providing transportation, storage and picking solutions to all types of companies. At the new center, operators manage stock and prepare orders for customers from various sectors, such as food and beverage, perfume, cosmetics and retail.

For this very reason, Mecalux installed 41-foot-high racking with an overall capacity for 93,241 pallets containing goods of different sizes and characteristics.

Extremely versatile, these racks can store pallets that are up to 9.8 feet high.

The company’s priority was to streamline and optimize the preparation and dispatch of 4,000 daily orders. Because this is such a high number, the firm required an error-free system to help it organize these orders.

Mecalux came up with the solution: an automated warehouse that acts as a sequencing buffer, equipped with the Pallet Shuttle system and transfer cars.

The warehouse sequences and schedules order dispatches based on vehicle routes, thereby combining efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

At the heart of this installation is the automated warehouse, where order-picking work done off pallet racks is combined and consolidated.

Thanks to this warehouse, the company has a space where it can store its picked orders and organize their dispatch.

This four-level installation consists of two blocks of racking. The racks stand 41.3 feet high and can hold six pallets deep.

The warehouse has storage capacity for 2,556 pallets weighing 1.2 tons each.

Two transfer cars per level serve the storage channels, and the Pallet Shuttle moves inside the channels to insert or extract the goods.

Having two cars on each level boosts the installation’s performance, enabling it to operate non-stop. For example, while preventive maintenance is being carried out on one transfer car, the other is still in operation.

The electric shuttle is equipped with two supercapacitors that self-charge while on-board the transfer car; as a result, it is always ready to carry out orders.

With the help of handling equipment, operators take care of the entry of pre-prepped goods. Three of the five entry points are equipped with a pallet lift to move goods to the corresponding level.

In addition, one of the entry points has a stretch wrapper, ensuring load stability.

Easy WMS, the warehouse management system by Mecalux, is responsible for organizing, classifying, storing and managing goods in the automated warehouse; it also sequences the pallets based on their corresponding orders and transport routes.

Optimal distribution of the products throughout the buffer enables an outflow of 216 pallets per hour.

As at the infeed points, three lifts take care of outflows from the higher levels. For identification purposes, a label is placed on each pallet the moment it is dispatched.

The inverted electrified monorail system moves the pallets straight to the preload channels in the sequence already established by Easy WMS.

Dynamic potential and easy assembly were decisive factors when implementing this pallet transport system; its main benefit lies in the smooth, safe movement of orders.

The dispatch area is comprised of ten sets of three preload flow channels. Each set corresponds to a full truckload.

In the channels, monitors display all the necessary information about the order and its route.

Operators scan each pallet using a radio frequency terminal. This ensures that the goods are loaded into the truck in the proper order.

The dispatch area is connected to the automated warehouse for the purposes of cross-docking goods that have to be shipped immediately. These types of goods need not be stored on the racks; they must pass through the automated warehouse, however, to follow the delivery route sequence established by Easy WMS.

With close to 100,000 pallets stored and 4,000 daily orders, Luís Simões’ intense levels of activity required an efficient, quick, error-free solution — a comprehensive solution, which is just what Mecalux delivered at this leading logistics center.