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Automated rack system reduces Labor Cost with 2-Year ROI

A state-of-art processing facility located in Nebraska processes premium ingredients including meats, fruits and vegetables for high-end pet food manufacturers nationwide.

With only 190 employees, they were looking for a cost-efficient way to improve the efficiency of their current inventory retrieval system.

The semi-automated system wasn't as robust as they expected - creating bottlenecks in their processes and leading to unexpected downtime.  They needed a solution that functioned at optimum efficiency in a freezer application and reduced the dependence on their forklift fleet.

In addition, they were planning to open a second location in Omaha and recognized the expansion as an opportunity to set up their new facility for maximum storage capacity and performance.

Omni Mole ASRS

INITIAL CHALLENGE

The Management Team needed their current inventory system to perform more efficiently and to eliminate the current downtime issues.  This semi-automated product required operators to feed the system in a freezer application, resulting in high labor costs, equipment maintenance expenses and too much product damage.

OUR SOLUTION

Riekes worked closely with the Operations Team to retrofit the existing equipment with a fully-automated, Omni-Mole Shuttle System which would reduce labor costs and eliminate redundant forklift tasks.  In addition, a new Omni Mole racking system was designed for the new Omaha facility with a capacity of 5,000 pallets and 7 million pounds of storage.  It would be 50 lanes deep with two shuttles.  At the end of the implementation, both locations would be fully automated for maximum storage capacity and efficiency. 

50 percent labor

THE RESULTS

The new system runs autonomously - reducing labor costs and product damage while dramatically increasing storage density.  The customer will have  a substantial reduction in labor costs at their existing location and a reduction of 50% of their projected labor costs at the new Omaha facility.  Additionally, this solution provides the ability to increase picking capacity and eliminate wasted aisle space. 

The investment in a fully automated retrieval system will see a $692,462 ROI at the end of year two and the Omaha facility will see an additional savings over the first five years.