Go with the flow Vanderlande

go witH tHe flow

Vanderlande is a global leader in the design and manufacture of multi-functional sorting systems for airports, warehouses and parcel hubs. The company continues to extend its competitive edge with its latest award-winning baggage-flow solutions that eliminate traditional labour-intensive practices and optimise the cost of total ownership, as Philip Yorke reports.

Vanderlande Industries was founded in Veghel, the Netherlands in 1949 and began by manufacturing conveyer systems for the loading of agricultural produce onto ships. Today the company is a major force in the development of automated handling technology and acknowledged as one of the world’s most innovative. Its core businesses provide a wide range of fully automated material handling systems for baggage flow at airports, as well as for providing advanced robotic systems for warehouses and postal distribution centres.

Today the company’s extensive product portfolio of integrated and intelligent software and life-cycle services, provide fast and reliable automation solutions worldwide. Currently the company has over 6,000 employees and in 2018 recorded revenues of more than 1.6 billion euros.

unrivalled “end-to-end” logistics

Despite stiff competition, Vanderlande’s new ‘BagFlow’ system has been selected as the winner of this year’s inter airport Europe

Excellence Awards in the inter-future Special Award category. The end-to-end baggage logistics concept claimed the top spot and confirms Vanderlande’s continued commitment to developing solutions that guarantee greater efficiency and success for airports, airlines and passengers.

The inter airport Europe Excellence Awards acknowledges the aviation industry’s best solution-focused technologies that help to further develop the market. The inter-future Special Award category recognises visionary and bold new ideas, products and services that help to build a platform on which to define and create the ‘airport of the future’.

By establishing an integrated approach to the total bag sorting process, from the bag-drop right through to the aircraft, Vanderlande’s BagFlow system allows airports to handle more bags in the same footprint, optimise resource use, and keep costs under control. The award was voted for by the international airport community, and Vanderlande was formally presented with the special prize during the opening and awards ceremony earlier this year.

Vanderlande’s Board Member and Executive Vice President Airports Andrew Manship accepted the award on behalf of the company: “Winning in this category is confirmation that we not only understand the challenges facing the aviation industry, but are able to define solutions that help it overcome them. I am delighted that BagFlow has received the top honour this year. Vanderlande prides itself on continuously listening to its customers and working closely with them to define future-proof concepts that significantly improve overall operational performance.”

Directly scalable solutions

Recently Vanderlande launched the next instalment of its innovative scalable solution systems known as Direct-Sort. This latest modular parcel sorting solution offers a modular, future-proof and straightforward system that sorts parcels from the moment they are unloaded with the aim of optimising efficiency and lowering the total cost of ownership (TCO).

The latest Vanderlande ‘evolution solution’ comes in configurable modules, tailored to the specific needs of each parcel depot. This helps to reduce the initial investment and puts the correct volume of parcels at the operative’s disposal at the right time. It also permits the introduction of new technologies, which can reduce an airport’s dependency on manual labour, facilitate growth and reduce operational costs.

The modular configuration of Direct-Sort means that it can be easily adjusted to each sorting centre’s ongoing needs and then expanded to match any future requirements. New modules can be fully tested and integrated in an extremely short period of time, mitigating any operational impact. In addition, Direct-Sort is very robust in terms of maintenance and the handling of changes in parcel flows.

“The drive towards automation continues to grow as both labour and space become ever scarcer,” explains Vanderlande’s Market Director Parcel Rob Qualm. “This means that parcel companies must maximise the throughput from existing and future assets, while delivering the highest possible service level to their customers. Direct-Sort can help to match the ebbs and flows with changing market demand.”

Vanderlande is also launching ‘The hub of the future’. This is its vision on how sort-on-demand solutions and can be modular and scalable by design, thus helping to answer the continuous need for convenient delivery windows, consolidated and high-speed deliveries, easy returns, and efficient parcel tracking.

multi-functional hubs

A little earlier this year Vanderlande shared a number of market insights relating to its automation and storage solutions at this year’s Parcel Forum in Dallas, Texas. Today it is recognised that consumer demand is at an all-time high and parcel companies must cope with

the increasing demand for speed, flexibility and higher service levels. In addition, building space in urban areas is already at a premium and labour is increasingly hard to source.

Until a few years ago, the ‘push’ concept was the standard procedure, in which products were pushed through the supply chain to be sent out for delivery. However, this led to high levels of consumer dissatisfaction due to the limited delivery options available. In the ‘pull’ concept, the buyer is always firmly in control by demanding convenient delivery windows and keeping track of items.

Automation is essential in realising these new requirements and Vanderlande has vast experience in the smooth integration and installation of automated storage and retrieval systems. The inherent flexibility of such multi-functional sorting solutions allows parcel hubs to seamlessly move away from traditional ‘pull’ methods, embrace new business models and rapidly respond to changes in the market.

Vanderlande told Industry Europe: “Modular sort-on-demand solutions offer the potential to create a temporary storage option to quickly adapt to changing delivery times or locations. Hubs will benefit from higher levels of service, flexibility and operator efficiency, as well as shorter loading times. In addition, it will facilitate the effective consolidation of orders and enhance route planning. Furthermore, its integrated and intelligent automation software can provide full control over the entire sorting process.”

For further details of Vanderlande’s latest multi-functional sorting systems and services visit: www.vanderlande.com