Video transcription

In this logistics centre in Tarragona, Spain, over 1,000 pallets are dispatched every day. They contain the hygiene and cosmetics products of Laboratorios Maverick, part of the Ubesol Group.

This company’s steady growth has led to the commissioning of a new logistics centre to meet consumer needs and maintain the company's positioning.

Mecalux has led this project, as it did in the past with Ubesol.

HUGO MORANTE - Operations Coordinator at Maverick
"In Spain, Laboratorios Maverick is a benchmark in its sector. We needed to expand our storage area, since we were starting to outgrow the warehouse. Once we realised this, we began to look into potential options and suppliers to set up this infrastructure. In the end, we chose to work with Mecalux because we believe it is a leading company in the storage sector."

In this centre, Mecalux has implemented a combination of solutions to house and maintain all the firm’s logistics processes:

an automated clad-rack warehouse, live racking, a sequencing buffer for pallets and 45 blocks of pallet racks.

AUTOMATED WAREHOUSE

The automated clad-rack warehouse is used to store finished products.

A high-density system combining the Pallet Shuttle with a stacker crane was installed, as Maverick works with very few SKUs but a large number of pallets per SKU.

Three single-mast stacker cranes travel along the centre’s three, 70-metre-long aisles. The cradle of these machines is equipped with a shuttle that moves the pallet to the deepest available location.

Each stacker crane can carry out 24 combined cycles per hour. The racks measure 26.5 metres high and have 14 load levels. This automated warehouse can receive and dispatch up to 1,728 pallets a day of finished product. Its storage capacity is 31,515 pallets.

HUGO MORANTE - Operations Coordinator at Maverick
"We have multiplied our storage capacity with this warehouse, while occupying an area of merely 3,878 square meters. Now, we can finish our orders in just 30 minutes."

PALLET RACKS

The pallet racks store all the raw materials needed to make the finished goods. They also hold the final product, classified as highly flammable.

In total, 45 blocks of pallet racks with 4 storage levels able to accommodate 10,000 Euro-pallets have been installed.

SAFETY

Mecalux has equipped the warehouse with a safety system that ensures the protection of both staff and the installation itself.

SEQUENCING BUFFER

Connected to the automated warehouse is the sequencing buffer, located between the pallet racking and live racks for picked orders. It consists of a conveyor circuit and serves to store pallets that need to be stacked. Mecalux’s Easy WMS software is charged with managing the pallet-stacking sequence with the aim of optimising the lorry’s volume capacity.

HUGO MORANTE - Operations Coordinator at Maverick
"The sequencing buffer is a mechanism that allows us to introduce and dispatch product simultaneously in the warehouse. That is, we can enter and remove product at the same time. To do this, we use two pallet stackers and two pallet dispensers that enable us to streamline these operations."

FLOW RACKS / DISPATCHES

The live racks have a high-performance single-mast stacker crane with an on-board hinged roller conveyor. This stacker crane places the pallets in the live channels in the racking. The pallets then move smoothly by gravity to the lowest part of the racks. These racks store finished orders ready to be dispatched. With 3 load levels, they can hold 2,200 stacked half-pallets. Application of the FIFO system, where the first pallet in is the first pallet out, ensures optimum product turnover.

Just next to the area where pallets are extracted from the live racking is the dispatch zone. Here, goods are placed directly on the lorries, doing away with the need for a preload area.

Mecalux’s Easy WMS Warehouse Management System is responsible for combining loads from the automated installation and the sequencing buffer to maximise the lorry’s volume capacity. In addition, this system groups and sequences the products by route, vehicle, customer, delivery order and other variables, reducing dispatch times.

HUGO MORANTE - Operations Coordinator at Maverick
Mecalux’s software supervises all warehouse operations in real time. By keeping everything under control, time and space are managed extremely efficiently. Easy WMS has allowed us to eliminate errors, for example, in traceability. From now on, these types of mistakes will never happen because the software ensures this.

This logistics centre removes many of the constraints faced by Laboratorios Maverick in terms of capacity, pallet flows and multiple SKUs.

Currently, this company is equipped with the most advanced technology in its installations. This enables it to meet the highest quality and service demands.