MATERIAL FLOW Smart
MATERIAL FLOW Smart solution for Brazil’s largest sorting hub WORLD OF INDUSTRIES – INTRALOGISTICS & DISTRIBUTION 3/2017
E-commerce growth and ever shortening delivery times increase pressure on Parcel and Postal companies around the world. High-capacity automated sorting systems are the solution for this challenge. In Brazil’s largest sorting hub, Vanderlande and Vitronic provided a turnkey solution to enable further growth and end-to-end visibility of shipment data. Competition in the Parcel and Postal market is based on speed and accuracy. The customers demand even faster deliveries and full visibility of their orders, driven by new e-commerce shopping habits. Brazil, South America’s largest economy, has seen a steady growth in population and consumer purchasing power. Today, there are more than 204 million inhabitants, who are increasingly using mobile devices and online payment platforms. Braspress, the market leader, consolidated its Headquarters and operations in just one new site, named “Blue Planet” in Guarulhos, near Sao Paulo. The plot occupies 230,000 sq. meters, of which 90,000 sq. meters have been developed in the first phase. This strategic location is meant to be the corner stone for the long term expansion plans of the company. A fully automated sorting system is the backbone of this strategic hub. The equipment is a SCS 1200, a cross-belt sorter with 102 external chutes, 1,081 carriers, an impressive length of 760 meters and a total footprint of 30,000 sq. meters. The design capacity is 15,000 parcels/hour for an investment of around 15 Mil €, and a project duration of just 18 months. Vanderlande acted as the project manager and delivered the equipment, controls and software in budget and on time. The early involvement and the commitment of Braspress helped meet every milestone down to the final handover in September 2016. Real time data transfer One of the key components of this system is the Auto-ID solution. Such a high throughput installation, demands the best camerabased identification system to ensure reliable data capturing and an efficient workflow. Vanderlande commissioned Auto-ID specialist Vitronic to provide all the ID stations. LYL Ingeniería, the Spanish long-term partner of Vitronic ensured on-site support and smooth implementation. About Vitronic Vitronic is an owner-managed group based in Wiesbaden, Germany. Founded in 1984, the group is a world leader in industrial machine vision covering a wide spectrum from standard products with customer-specific modules to individually customized solutions in its core sectors of industry, logistics and traffic technology. Big brands in Parcel and Postal business and material handling systems rely on automated data capture solutions by Vitronic which can be integrated at any point along the process chain for the automatic capture of product data, package data and customer-specific data. All incoming parcels are unloaded on 16 extendible conveyors and then weighted before they are directed to the sorter. In the next step, they move on to the Auto-ID systems, which are integrated into the conveyor technology. Each system is designed as a tunnel and includes five cameras. Additionally, the volume measurement system captures height, width and length of each parcel. To ensure highest throughput rates and process accuracy, four video coding stations will be implemented to process up to 2,000 shipments per day. All these data are transferred to Braspress in real time for operational and statistical purposes. When the parcels are in the destination chute, trucks and vans are loaded through extendibles for faster transit times and reduced handling errors. Thanks to the smart solution provided by Vanderlande, not only does Braspress benefit from the highest throughput rates and transparency during the sorting process, they have also established the basis for future corporate developments. Luiz Carlos Lopes, Operations Director, said: “Braspress could not have chosen a better partner for this project, which will help us achieve our ambitious goals in the future.” Photographs: Vanderlande www.vitronic.com www.vanderlande.com About Vanderlande Vanderlande, based in Veghel, the Netherlands, is the global market leader in airport luggage systems and sorting systems for package and post handling organizations. The company is also a front runner in the warehouse automation segment. Every day, Vanderlande’s systems handle more than 8.8 million pieces of luggage and sort 300 packages per second. Components are normally manufactured in Veghel and then transported to project sites all across the globe. WORLD OF INDUSTRIES – INTRALOGISTICS & DISTRIBUTION 3/2017
