5. July 2022
The Bell Food Group trusts TGW
- Highly-automated system for Europe's leading meat producer and manufacturer of convenience products
- 42 PickCenter ONEs will handle labelling and picking on an as-needed basis
- TGW software expertise: SAP EWM will plan, monitor and control all processes
(Marchtrenk, 5 July 2022) By the end of 2025, a highly-automated fulfilment centre for meat products will be built for the Bell Food Group in the Swiss municipality of Oensingen. This high-performance system will help concentrate the company's currently decentralised logistics in one location, making it possible not only to significantly lower costs, but also to raise the level of service for the customers. On top of that, Bell is putting its trust in TGW's software competence: the central element of the project is the connection to SAP EWM.
The Bell Food Group is among the leading European manufacturers of meat and convenience products. Founded in Switzerland in 1869, the grocery specialist now forms part of the Coop group and recently generated a revenue of 4.2 billion Swiss francs. In addition to Bell, the group of companies also includes Eisberg, Hilcona and Hügli; their product range comprises fresh meat, poultry, cold cuts, seafood as well as fresh and non-perishable convenience products, such as ready-made meals, salads, sandwiches and sauces.
Speed and flexibility as key criteria
The new fulfilment centre will be the central picking and distribution platform for packaged, ready-to-sell, fresh service counter goods and self-service goods: it will supply not only supermarket branches but also wholesalers and individual entrepreneurs, which means a high demand for speed and flexibility. The products will arrive from Bell's various production facilities and be labelled, temporarily stored and picked according to individual customers' requirements.
Flexible in the face of changes to order and customer structure
The heart of the solution will consist of a two-part shuttle system with 190,000 storage locations, made up of a thirteen-aisle picking module and an eight-aisle goods-out module. More than 400 shuttles will handle rapid and energy-efficient storage and retrieval of goods. The twelve labelling lines will have a capacity of up to 700,000 sales units per day. This ensures that goods can be picked, palletised and ready for goods-out within about two hours. The 42 PickCenter One workstations will give Bell the flexibility to react to changes in the order and customer structure.
In the course of the project, the entire process for handling empties will also be centralised. Bell uses a closed tote circulation model: customers' used totes, roll cages and pallets are returned to Oensingen for cleaning. On peak days, Bell processes up to 80,000 totes: first they are automatically depalletised, checked and cleaned. Then, the system makes them available once again to production or the order picking process.
SAP EWM for the innovative logistics solution
Bell is also putting its trust in TGW's competence regarding software, opting for a complete SAP interface. SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) is high-performance warehouse management software that helps to plan, control and monitor manual and automated processes. This system enables holistic process handling, from goods-in to goods-out.
"We're delighted to have won Bell over with the advantages of our solution," emphasise Johann Steinkellner, CEO Central Europe at TGW and Thomas Kretz, Managing Director TGW Switzerland. "With this highly-automated fulfilment centre, Bell will profit from optimal performance at the highest level of flexibility and concentrate its logistics in one central location."
