BY DAVID MALONEY, SENIOR EDITOR
AS/RS
materialhandlingupdate
The big and small
of storage
THE CREAM RISES TO THE TOP
The thing about ice cream is that it has to remain frozen or it quickly
turns to ice goop. The right technology, such as a pallet AS/RS housed
within a large freezer, can help it keep its cool.
Since its founding in 1907, Blue Bell Creameries has become one
of the best-known ice cream brands in the South. Headquartered in
Brenham, Texas (near Houston), the company produces ice cream at
three main plants in Brenham as well as in Alabama and Oklahoma.
The ice cream is sold in 20 southern and western states.
The company attributes its success and steady growth to its model of
doing only direct-to-store delivery, without any middlemen or wholesalers involved. “It allows us to control the quality,” says Paul Prazak,
manager of plant operations at the Brenham production facility.
Direct delivery requires that the ice cream be readily accessible
so that the product that hits the stores is as fresh as possible. Using
automated storage helps Blue Bell achieve that goal. Last year, the
Brenham production building installed a new pallet automated storage
and retrieval system. It replaced a storage system originally installed
in 1982 that required an operator to ride along on the cranes to help
gather items. That system did not offer the capacity or speed that Blue
Bell would need in order to keep up with growing production and
inventory volumes.
The new AS/RS from Daifuku Webb stores the ice cream on pallets
AUTOMATED STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS
The two main types of automated storage and retrieval sys-
tems are those used for storing large items on pallets and those
used to store smaller items in totes, also known as miniload
systems. What follows are the stories of two companies with
very different requirements that each found the answer to its
storage needs in an AS/RS.
One company wanted a better way
to store and retrieve heavy pallet
loads, while another needed a
system for handling tiny electronic
components. The answer for both?
An AS/RS.
