Foster’s Group chose an Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) from Swisslog, for its Wolf Blass Winery in Australia. The company needed a system to help it manage future growth, reduce freight and double handling costs, transport export products directly from winery to port, optimise the distribution centre and operations.
The resulting system design uses an ASRS that can put away and retrieve over 500 pallets per hour, using nine ASRS cranes and 22,032 double deep pallet locations. The manual storage area has just over 10,000 pallet locations for finished goods, packaging materials and picking operations.
The Swisslog system provided the infrastructure to double Wolf Blass’ capacity over the next decade. It also reduced the winery’s warehouse footprint by 25 per cent compared to traditional storage systems used in the wine industry. The annual operations budget has been cut by 23 per cent – a saving of almost one quarter on the cost of every carton shipped.
