Dalle Hygiène, one of Kartogroup’s
10 production and sales companies in Europe, recently
took delivery of an automated palletization system
at its plant in Bousbecque, near Lille in northern
France. The results have been extremely positive
for the company, increasing efficiency and flexibility,
and reducing bottlenecks at the end of the line.
THE CONTEXT OF THE INVESTMENT
Before the details of the installation, let’s
put it in context. The company’s 25,000 m² converting
facility and associated warehouse was set up in 2005,
some two years after the second tissue machine started
up at the tissue mill just down the road. The two
tissue machines produce some 60,000 tpy between them.
Dalle Hygiène now concentrates on the domestic
market having pulled out of away-from-home last year.
The company produces mainly private label products
in the form of bathroom and facial tissue, and kitchen
towel. The majority of these products are destined
for French, Belgian and Dutch supermarkets. Other
markets include Spain, Italy and Germany, although
Kartogroup has plants in these countries so it is
only for certain specific, limited needs that Dalle
Hygiène’s products need to travel so
far. Of course not every mill can produce every product
variant, but Kartogroup, with its spread of facilities,
clearly aims to minimize unnecessary movement of
product.
A small amount of production is sold unconverted
as jumbo rolls, destined mainly for the UK. A small
and dwindling number of jumbo rolls are purchased
from outside the group: “There are products
which we can’t produce from our own tissue
production, but we are looking to make an investment
to answer all our needs internally,” says Kartogroup
consultant and European project manager Massimo Lungone.
THE MOTIVATION
Dalle Hygiène’s main motivation was
to increase efficiency by reducing the manual input
in the palletizing process. In this respect, the
investment has been a great success. Prior to the
project’s inception, there were 48 people working
at the end of the line – a situation prone
to complication.
The company invested in an OCME system comprising
seven robotic palletizers, three laser guided vehicles
(LGVs) with forklift attachments, and three LGVs
with conveyors, to deliver loaded pallets to the
stretch wrappers.
The end result after the equipment was installed
is that palletization has been totally automated – there
are no operators permanently located at the end of
the line but there are two technicians per shift
for the whole system. The equipment was installed
in 2006 and return on first main phase of the investment
is expected to take just two and half years.
Construction and installation of the line took four
months. Dalle Hygiène chose OCME as the supplier
for the project because the equipment it proposed
was the right price and could be delivered within
the desired time-frame.
MORE THAN PRICE
But there was more to it than that: As Mr. Lungone
says, “They made a better analysis of our
products and palletization needs. Others offered
the same results but were more expensive because
they offered technology we simply didn’t
need. The system we now have is modular and we
can extend it to meet any possible future palletization
needs. If tomorrow, commercial needs dictate that
we need to produce some new products, we can buy
components as necessary.”
At present, each station – there are seven
in all - is served by a single robotic palletizer
designed to create 25-62 pallets per hour depending
on products involved. This set up is perfectly adequate
for the relatively straightforward pallet loads which
Dalle Hygiène requires for its customers.
Should pallet requirements become more complicated,
with a greater mixture of products on each pallet,
then it might well become necessary to add a small
extra robot to one or more stations, which would
prepare the product groupings in suitable layers
ready for the main robot to place them on the pallet.
This is perfectly possible with the OCME system,
but would have been an example of over-specification
if installed at this stage.
“We are very pleased with the OCME line,” says Mr. Lungone. “We
broke production records after the installation, and discovered, as we had
guessed, that manual palletization had been a bottleneck.”
ROLE OF LGVS
The use of LGVs instead of forklifts has brought
two particular advantages. Firstly safety: the
potentially hazardous combination of people and
trucks all working in the same zone is now avoided.
Secondly, a potential bottleneck has been avoided,
as forklifts operated by drivers have to stop from
time-to-time and are generally less predictable
and reliable than LGVs.
Automation
has had further benefits from a personnel point
of view. Dalle Hygiène can now build
up eight hours’ worth of production without
personnel intervention, which equates to a substantial
buffer of pallets – around 700. This considerably
reduces the need for expensive night-shift work,
as production can continue unaided through the night.
It also helps the mill cope with the irregularities
of delivery truck movements. Sometimes a few trucks
will arrive at the same time, and the buffer stock
combined with the availability of staff who are freed
up by the automated palletization system, means the
trucks can be in and out much more quickly than before
and production never stops because of a missing forklift.
The warehouse is not yet completely automated, but
it would only take an extra three LGVs, determination
of of warehouse layout, space, automation is an ongoing
project.
Massimo Lungone is now a private consultant, whose
company Studio Lungone can be contacted at studio@lungone.191.it.
Also see www.studiolungone.it
Kartogroup profile
Kartogroup has annual sales of approximately
Euro 450 million, generated by 10 production
and sales companies:
Italy: Kartogroup, Linpaper, Kartocell, Sud Europa
Tissue
France: Dalle Hygiène SA and Dalle Hygiène
Production
Germany : Kartogroup Deutschland
Holland : Kartogroup Benelux
Hungary : Kartongroup Magyarország
Spain: Kartogroup España
The company produces and converts tissue. Expansions
in recent years, apart from the French operation,
include the 50,000 tpy German mill which was
started up in 2004, and the 110,000 tpy converting
plant at Sanaletti in Italy. Kartogroup produces
brands, namely Perla and Scala, private label
and away-from-home (AfH) products (under Kartogroup
Professional brand). |
