Complete Automation from Workshop to Warehouse with Intralox Technology and Support

Customer Objectives

As part of its efforts to future-proof and modernize its liquor plant, Lao Cun Zhang Baijiu needed to enable its automatic storage and retrieval system (ASRS) warehouse by fully automating its product transport, sorting, and palletizing operations. Doing so within the footprint of its plant’s existing floorplan—a limited space with two production workshops physically separated from the warehouse—was proving difficult. In fact, Lao Cun Zhang had been unable to find any solutions that could work within the layout of its plant, achieve the efficiency required in transporting products from workshop to warehouse, and not damage product in the process.

Intralox Execution

The traditional solution of transporting pallets from the workshops to the warehouse would only have been able to handle 40-50% of the line capacity, given the customer’s space constraints. Instead, Intralox designed a way for Lao Cun Zhang to transport individual products to the warehouse, where they could then be sorted and palletized. To achieve this efficiency and compactness—while still providing the necessary gentle product handling—Intralox leveraged multiple belting and equipment solutions. Activated Roller Belt (ARB) Perpetual Merges were used within each workshop to merge multiple lanes for more streamlined transport to the warehouse, saving 50% more space than a traditional lane merging system and without the need for lane control. Modular plastic belting and ARB equipment ensured safe, gentle product transport, while radius and straight-running belts enabled safe transport in all plant applications, including incline, decline, curve, straight-running, and accumulation. Finally, ARB Sorters S7000 within the warehouse safely and efficiently sorted products into various stations for palletizing. Thanks to the consultative support of Intralox Layout Optimization, the implemented solution not only fit within the floor space available, it even allowed for additional storage space.

Results

Lao Cun Zhang had evaluated a variety of options but, due to space constraints, none was ideal. However, thanks to Intralox’s thoughtful consultation, reliable customer service, and innovative solutions, Lao Cun Zhang was able to achieve complete automation. Intralox’s sorting and merging technologies, ample experience, and strong research and development capabilities proved to be the most suitable solutions to the customer’s problems on-site.