COLD CHAIN

BEST PRACTICES

COLD STORAGE WAREHOUSE DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT BY ALAIN KADDOUM, GENERAL MANAGER, SWISSLOG MIDDLE EAST

Positions that require working in sub-zero temperatures can be especially difficult to fill in the midst of a tight labor market. But automation, when tightly integrated with building design and supported by advanced management practices, can resolve labor issues and contribute to improved efficiency. The UAE is determined to reduce its dependence on oil and become a global leading logistics hub, thanks to its central geographical location in the GCC region and increasing government investment in infrastructure development.

UAE is largely dependent on food and pharmaceutical imports that require abundant cold chain transportation and storage facilities in the country. The substantial increase of consumer spending on retail goods, which is already estimated as a USD 90 billion market, due to population growth and high demand for temperature sensitive and perishable goods in food and pharmaceuticals, lead to an increase in the adoption of automation in the facilities using automated storage and retrieval system and implementation of modern technology.

According to a report by Ken Research, UAE Cold Chain Market is expected to generate over USD 1 Billion by 2025. The market is expected to register a positive CAGR of 6.1 % in terms of revenue during the forecasted period 2019 - 2025.

Swisslog Middle East shares the following best practices to ensure the implementation of automation in a way that

Alain Kaddoum, General Manager, Swisslog Middle East

enabled design and management practices that minimized energy consumption and limited exposure of workers to harsh conditions.

Start with the automation system

Because the automate strategy for pallet high bay warehouses is integral to building design, where possible you should select the automation system before the building is designed. This allows the building designer to fully leverage the capabilities of the system to achieve greater efficiencies.

Among the most popular systems for cold storage automation are stacker cranes and robotic pallet shuttles. Stacker crane systems represent a cost-effective and reliable approach to automated storage and retrieval where the highest density and throughout are not required. Robotic pallet shuttles, such as Swisslog PowerStore, deliver many of the same benefits of stacker cranes but support higher density and throughput. One key benefit of PowerStore is that it can be implemented also in existing buildings in different shapes.

Think taller

Traditional warehouses with 40-foot ceiling heights are not conducive to efficient refrigeration because the square footage of the roof introduces heat from solar energy, increasing the load on the refrigeration system. If the facility is a deep-freeze warehouse it will also have a heated floor, which further contributes to the heat load.

These issues can be minimized by a building design that reduces roof and floor square footage without compromising storage capacity. That requires building taller warehouses, enabled by automation systems that support vertical storage such as those mentioned above. Increasing building height can allow the building designer to achieve a footprint approximately one-third that of a conventional facility, creating significant OPEX savings over the life of the facility.

Don’t forget carton handling

Storage and retrieval aren’t the only processes that can be automated in a cold storage warehouse. Downstream operations such as carton handling also lend themselves to automation.

One example is the Swisslog ACPaQ robotic case picking system. It automates the task of building store-friendly pallets by combining light-goods shuttle systems, conveyors and high-performance de-palletizing and palletizing robotic technology from KUKA, a global leader in robotics. The system can be configured for small, mid-size and large distribution centers handling up to 500,000 cases a day.

Cold proof your technology

Automation systems require some special adaptations to perform reliably in lowtemperature environments. Make sure you have remote visibility into your system to limit technician time in the deepfreeze environment and that your system features cold-resistant lubrication, quick disconnect couplings and other features that allow technicians working on the system to get in and out quickly.

Manage energy demand

While proper building design and automation system selection can drive down consumption in a cold storage facility, managing demand can also yield savings. Reducing energy costs during highdemand periods minimizes the impact of surge pricing and can drive down costs on a per kilowatt hour basis. The challenge, of course, is costs are highest on high ambient-temperature days when the thermal load on the refrigeration system is at its highest.

The key is to adopt advanced control algorithms and sensors that enable smart energy management in which cold environments are overcooled during periods of low demand, such as overnight, creating a thermal buffer that minimizes cooling requirements during peak periods.

The demand for cold storage warehousing is growing but the labor to man these facilities isn’t. Automation represents the only viable solution and the best approach to automation is one that integrates building design, automation and operating practices in ways that optimize throughput, labor and energy management.