Moving solutions Vanderlande Industries

MOVING SOLUTIONS

Whether it’s handling baggage at airports or automating warehouses and postal sorting facilities, Vanderlande Industries has the solution. Industry Europe looks at the activities of a Dutch company that is helping to speed things up all over the world.

Vanderlande Industries is a worldleading specialist in material handling systems for airports, warehouses, postal and postal sorting facilities. Founded in 1949 in Veghel, the Netherlands, mainly to supply conveyor systems to load agricultural produce on to ships in the nearby canal, Vanderlande is now a global operator and one of the largest and most advanced in the market. Its core businesses provide automated material handling systems for baggage handling at airports, automation systems in warehouses and distribution centres and sorting solutions for parcel and postal facilities. Vanderlande implements material handling systems of all sizes, from local sorting depots up to the world’s largest facilities.

All its systems and services focus on improving customers’ logistics processes; Vanderlande works closely with all its customers, from the initial analysis of the underlying business processes through to total life-cycle support. Its services range from logistics concept and system design, through engineering, software development, supply chain management and manufacturing, to project management, system integration and customer services.

“Over the years we have moved from being essentially a manufacturer of machines for material handling into a high tech systems integrator that develops a wide range of products, technologies and concepts through our own Research & Development and Systems Group,” explained a spokesperson for the company. “We still have our metal manufacturing plant in Veghel, where we make conveyors, sorters, shuttles and work-stations, but these days we produce much of our equipment at suppliers with whom we have very close and long-standing relationships. We have a global supply network, covering Europe, the USA and Asia.”

Vanderlande’s expansion is set to continue following its acquisition in October 2014 of Smatec GmbH with immediate effect. The takeover of the German company will extend its product portfolio and create a knowledge centre for new product development in its key markets. Smatec has over 25 years of experience in the development of warehouse automation technology and concepts. The Bielefeld-based company’s primary focus is to develop innovative warehouse automation systems in many variants, such as the pocket sorter.

Vanderlande CEO Govert Hamers said at the time: “The acquisition of Smatec fits perfectly within Vanderlande’s business development strategy and supports the ambitious plan to increase our presence in key warehouse automation market segments. The Bombay sorter is a good example of the new opportunities that this takeover brings to our impressive and expanding portfolio of integrated systems.”

A focus on services

Over the past few years, Vanderlande has also enhanced its reputation by developing its service concepts to customers. This business area is growing, both in impact as well as in activities. Traditionally, the focus was on mechanical maintenance and spare parts. It has developed towards an approach in which continuously improving business performance is the main driver. Topics like pro-active maintentance, remote monitoring and diagnostics and focus on the end-to-end process performance have become paramount. At this moment, Vanderlande worldwide operates 800 service contracts simultaneously across all their business areas, adding value to their customers’ logistics performance.

Indeed, Vanderlande is an award-winner when it comes to its service concepts. In April this it received the Innovation Award 2014 at the congress of NVSM, the Dutch Association for Service Management, in Eindhoven. This award is granted to a company that has achieved a remarkable improvement or innovation in the services business. Vanderlande was nominated because of the proactive research in the field of virtual reality with regard to service and product development. In close cooperation with Fontys University of Applied Sciences Eindhoven, it has developed a virtual version of the ergonomic order picking workstation PICK@EASE in the 3D cave at Fontys. The complete product is virtual – buttons, displays and arriving and departing of product totes – all is shown in virtual reality.

Baggage handling

Vanderlande’s airport baggage handling systems take care of all stages of baggage transit, from check-in to the aircraft hold and from arriving flights to the reclaim carousel. Its baggage handling systems are designed, built and serviced for airports of all sizes. Belt, tub and/or track solutions combine operational effectiveness, short connection times and high conveyability together with effective integral control of the whole baggage operation. The company claims that its proven technology, in-depth business knowledge and industry best-practises enable it to deliver the highest availability and capacity, transportation speed, reliability and the lowest costs per bag. Systems design includes redundancy, guaranteeing uptime.

To give an example of some of Vanderlande’s recent work in this area: in July last year it entered into a long-term agreement with Cardiff Airport to update its baggage handling system over a period of five years. The plan comprises eight projects, including a renewal of the system’s parts that require replacement. Along with a belt replacement programme and a five-year maintenance contract that includes a spare consignment arrangement, the work will improve the reliability of Cardiff Airport’s baggage handling system and utilise its existing capabilities and capacities. The work will be carried out in a live environment and will be carried out in such as way as to minimise disruption to the airport operations and passenger experience.

Warehouse automation

Vanderlande is also one of the world’s top suppliers of automated logistics systems for warehouses and distribution centres, with a track record of automation of more than 1000 such facilities in recent years.

It provides solutions for a wide range of industries, including food, fashion, parts, automotive, 3PL and e-commerce as well as for all kinds of parts and components.

The company’s projects focus on the entire flow, from goods receiving, storage, order picking, shipping and all related information flow. Its automated systems include warehouse management systems, warehouse control systems, order picking and fulfilment systems, automated storage and retrieval systems, sortation systems and conveyor and internal transport systems.

Vanderlande regularly wins high-profile contracts for this particular aspect of its business. In May 2014, for example, the Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn chose Vanderlande to install an automated distribution centre for non-perishables. By creating more capacity in the same space, Albert Heijn hopes to better accommodate the future demands of its customers and supply its stores more efficiently. The fully automated distribution centre will be

located on the site of its regional distribution centre in Zaandam and is expected to be completed by the end of 2017. The contract will initially be for one mechanised distribution centre to supply around 300 stores.

Parcel and Postal systems

Vanderlande’s automated parcel and postal sorting systems provide solutions for hubs and depots of all sizes. With over 500 systems installed, the company focuses on providing real-time process and systems intelligence using IT solutions that enable customers to maximise the efficiency of their sorting processes and continuously improve their operations. Its systems cover the entire door-to-door process from arrival and unloading, through sortation up to loading and departure.

As with its baggage handling and warehousing solutions, Vanderlande’s parcel and postal sorting systems are supplied to customers all over the world. It recently supplied two fully automated sorting solutions to Australia Post for installation at its Melbourne and Sydney parcel facilities.

The largest systems currently up and running in the western hemisphere, at their heart is Vanderlande’s CROSSBELT sorter. The CROSSORTER provides a highly flexible solution to handle a wide range of products: from very small packages, such as 2mm-thick mailers and shrink-wrapped products, through to bulky items including odd-shaped packages and totes. Its sophisticated control mechanism balances the flows over the different inducts and outputs, minimising recirculation and further increasing the operational capacity.

Up to the challenge

Vanderlande’s confidence in maintaining its growth performance rests upon the simple facts of consumer choice across the global economy. “As the average wealth of people around the world increases they want to travel so air traffic will continue to grow strongly, airports will have to expand to accommodate more flights and all that baggage will have to be handled,” said the company spokesperson.

“At the same time people across the world want to buy more and more products on-line and all those goods need to be stored and distributed from automated warehouses. Then they all have to be delivered through parcel sorting facilities. Vanderlande will continue to supply ever more intelligent logistics systems for all three of these functions. The trends are our friends. People want to fly more, they want to buy more on-line and they need their goods delivering; we are the people who can supply the systems to make sure it all works smoothly.” n