Japanese Food Corporation - Material Handling Case Study

Key Technology

• 850 positions of pick to light for full and split cases
• Vocollect "Pick-to-Voice" system
• Hytrol Prosort high-speed shoe sorter
• Electronic zone zero pressure accumulation conveyor
• 2 three-level pick modules (ambient, freezer)
• In-line RFID capable "Print and Apply" machines
• Accusort camera scan tunnels for higher read rates
• 4 Ambaflex powered spirals (2 each in ambient and freezer locations)
• Exacta WCS and WMS
• PC-Based Controls including 3-DHuman Machine Interface (HMI)
• Total of 3,300 feet of conveyor

Business Challenge

• Systemic improvements in accuracy, traceability, and efficiency needed to be addressed to meet the demands of major food retailers
• Integrating material flows from ambient, chill room, and freezer environments presented logistical challenges
• The new system had to meet future capacity demands of 30 trailers/day 55% reduction in labor for picking was needed

Results

• System supports up to 40 trucks per single shift and is more than capable of meeting future demands
• Pacing screens provide instant snapshots of operational productivity to management and operators and synchronizes flows between pick zones
• The new JFC headquarters and distribution enter is designed with energy-saving and environmentally friendly technology

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Case Study Video- Script

Located in southern California, just 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles in Commerce, California.

JFC too the bold step of creating a new distribution center in order to stay true to its philosophy, "Quality Merchandising and good service." The new 200,000 sq ft distribution center, with its four separate temperature zones, gives JFC the additional efficiency, accuracy and traceability required in today's market.

With the wide variety of products offered by JFC to there customer 4 temperature zones were needed. The ambient area, the cooler area at 38 degrees F, the freezer area at -10 degrees F, and the ultra low freezer at -50 degree F.

Typically, product is received in a bulk via shipping container or prepalletized on trucks. Bastian's Exacta software verifies product quantity and lot. If necessary, pallets are built, then Exacta directs operators to appropriate put away location. On the ambient side, products are picked to conveyor utilizing pick to light on levels 1 and 2 of the pick module and pick to voice on the 3rd. Pick to voice is also used for picks in secondary locations.

Conveyable product is transported to the sorting area on 1 of 2 lines from the pick module. A 3 to 1 merge is used to funnel all the products into a single lane. Products are then scanned using a Accusort 3 sided camera scan tunnel, which has the ability to read the front, top and both sides of each product. After each product is successfully scanned, Exacta generates a unique product label which is applied by either of 2 in line Printronix applicators working in tandem. [Craig Edlin] Today's distribution center may performing additional value added processes prior to sortation and shipment of merchandise. Examples are the automatic printing and application of custom documents such as shipping labels. Typically you'll see two or more print and apply machines in series, providing for higher throughput. Before being inducted on to the shipping sorter each product weight is checked to ensure accuracy. Then the package shipping labels are scanned and given 1 of 12 possible divert lanes. If a product did not have a readable barcode or failed the weight verification, these products will be diverted down the jackpot lane for a quality check and manually sorted. In lue of shutting the system down for a full lane condition, a recirculation loop was added to maintain a consist flow of product.

Each shipping lane has the capacity for 5 pallets. Each Exacta generated shipping label has pallet information as well as delivery stop information. This assist pallet builders to optimally build pallets for the delivery drivers. Each shipping lane has a marquee used to keep the pallet builders informed of the status of the current wave.

Freezer products are picked to conveyor or from a secondary location using pick to voice. Conveyable product is transported to the sorting area on 1 of 2 lines from the pick module to a mezzanine 16 feet in the air for sorting. As on the ambient side, product is merge together to be scanned in the camera scan tunnel, applied a label from one of two print applicators and weight checked. Products are then travel up an incline to be sorted down 1 of 5 shipping lanes. On this illustration the jackpot lane is the first divert point. Blue Arc Engineering provided us with mechanical paddle diverts for each lane. Once pallets are completed they are moved down to the ground floor via 1 of 2 Wildeck VRC and staged for shipping.

During the installation process many hurdles had to be overcome; the building was being remodeled, the freezer area was being put together and real estate was limited. Even with all these roadblocks plus a few more our installation was completed on time. We worked with suppliers to ship out materials quicker than they normally would. Hats off to our crews from ESSI, Tech Products and A & I Electrical who manned up and worked 12 hour days and at times 7 days a week. I would like to give a special thanks to Tim Shrebtienko, who coordinated and managed the onsite installation.

System rate is 50 cpm in the ambient area and 40 cpm in the freezer. Implementing this system will help JFC reduce their labor to process orders for a single truck by 55%. Operations will be capable to processing 30 trucks per day from 23.

In conclusion, JFC International chose to take a bold step in creating a new state of the art distribution center in order to stay true to their philosophy, "Quality Merchandising and Good Service". In order to achieve this they chose to partner with SAP Automation and Bastian Material Handling to deliver a custom turnkey solution to meet their needs. This concludes the case study for JFC.