How a leading global manufacturer of frozen French fries optimises its production delivery and chilled dispatch area with the help of three automation solutions from Movu.
Clarebout is one of the world's leading producers of frozen potato products for private labels. The company distributes its products to more than 120 countries worldwide. Clarebout has three state-of-the-art production units in Belgium and France (from 2023) and several potato storage facilities in Belgium and France (from 2023). The company is headquartered in Nieuwkerke (BE).
One of the most efficient and flexible logistics centres
After the products are packed, the cartons are transported on pallets to Clarebout's logistics centres. These are fully automated warehouses where the temperature is kept at a constant
-20 °C. The oxygen content in the warehouses is reduced for fire safety reasons.
Clarebout has one of the most efficient and flexible logistics systems. Customers can pick up their products at any time of day and be on their way to their destination within an hour.
To be able to offer this service, Clarebout needs a buffer warehouse for pallets with a very high dynamic range. This is where the innovative Movu atlas solution comes in.
300 storage and 600 retrieval operations per hour
The pallets with the frozen French fries are buffered in the Movu atlas by a conveyor belt. 24 hours around the clock. Every hour, 300 pallets are stored in the system. During the day, as soon as a truck arrives to pick up a delivery, the corresponding pallets are issued. The system has a capacity of 600 pallets per hour and serves a total of 12 loading bays. 36 shuttles in the 14-metre-high system ensure that the trucks are loaded as per the order after an hour at the latest.
Buffer warehouse for packaging material automated in 4 months
Production is supplied with packaging material from the packaging buffer 24/7. Before automation with Movu, a maximum of 3,000 pallets could be stored here. After automation with Movu atlas, the warehouse now holds 6,000 pallets with 12 shuttles on 5 levels. The automation of the existing warehouse was successfully completed within a period of four months.
Empty pallet buffer with maximum building utilisation
The pallets are delivered from a warehouse, buffered and forwarded to production around the clock. A special challenge is that the warehouse building does not have a conventional rectangular shape. Nevertheless, the existing space needs to be fully utilised. Movu atlas follows the shape of the building, and thus also makes areas usable that other systems would not take into account. This allowed the storage capacity to be increased from 3,000 pallet spaces before, to an impressive 6,000 pallet spaces.
Follow-up order in new warehouse
Clarebout is highly satisfied with Movu’s solutions and fast integration, and is using the same configuration of Movu atlas systems for a new warehouse in Dunkirk, albeit on a slightly smaller scale.
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