Axelot has developed a technological project for Empils for a new warehouse site

2023: Development of the technological design of the warehouse site in Rostov-on-Don

AXELOT announced on July 25, 2023 that it had developed a technological project for the warehouse site for Empils CJSC and made recommendations for the modernization of the existing one. The AXELOT recommendations will allow the Empils warehouse with minimal modernization costs to cope with the projected increase in commodity flow.

CJSC Empils is engaged in the production and sale of decorative and industrial coatings: enamel and paints, primers, varnishes and resins. The company is a Russian manufacturer of paints and varnishes and a major domestic producer of zinc oxide (zinc belyl).

The projected increase in commodity flow was the catalyst for the modernization of the warehouse of Empils CJSC. The company considered the option of building a warehouse of finished products, and the old one was allocated for storage of raw materials and materials, and for the development of a technological warehouse project I turned to AXELOT specialists.

logistic infrastructure Empils includes a warehouse complex located Rostov-on-Don in and including:

• production workshops and warehouses adjacent to the warehouses of the loading and unloading site on the street;
• railway lines that provide entry shipment goods and in warehouses, own locomotive;
• specialized warehouse equipment;
• container platform with a front loader for handling containers;
• motor roads on the territory of the complex, ensuring the receipt of finished products from production to the warehouse and shipment of goods by road.

The warehouse construction option was considered at the site of the facility partially used for raw material storage. The project is long-term, and until it is completed, the old Empils warehouse will continue to perform its functions. But with the existing storage type, its capacity has already been exhausted, therefore, simultaneously with the design of another room, it became necessary to optimize the processes of storage and processing of finished products on the existing site.

Existing Warehouse Development Strategy

The objectives of the project for upgrading the existing warehouse complex were to develop recommendations for the operation of the finished product warehouse until the launch of the new warehouse complex, related to topology, storage systems, technological processes, personnel and equipment, as well as to develop a general list of measures necessary for modernizing the warehouse, and to assess the feasibility of implementing WMS.

AXELOT started with an audit and identified "growth points" that should have been worked out to improve the efficiency of warehouse processes:

• The warehouse topology is not optimal due to the location of the entire product in stacks with the need to mix different articles in large packed cells, which reduces the throughput and overall cargo processing speed.
• The absence of the WMS system does not allow timely selection of goods, and also does not provide accounting for movement of goods with the required accuracy and detail.

The project team took into account the peculiarities of storage and processing. For example, each type of vehicle has its own loading scheme with its own conditions for laying goods. Another important characteristic is the presence on the territory of the container site, which stores empty and packed containers prepared for shipment by their own locomotive.

Automation is partially present in the warehouse - although warehouse processes are implemented using paper technology, some of the selected orders are checked using data collection terminals integrated with the information system.

AXELOT has developed for Empils a concept for the operation of the warehouse complex to implement part of the development plans using the existing finished product warehouse. The recommendations will improve storage efficiency and provide the necessary storage capacity. Based on the design results, Empils received an accurate warehouse plan with the designation of the location of storage areas and the storage systems used with reference to each warehouse block. The topology of the warehouse and the possible capacities of each warehouse unit were determined, the flow of goods from acceptance to shipment was developed, the required number of personnel and lifting and transportation equipment was calculated.

The customer is advised to manage warehouse processes via WMS. The project team has developed warehouse processes "as it will be," taking into account storage types, warehouse management through the WMS system and new equipment necessary to automate warehouse operation. As a result of this project, Empils received recommendations on converting the current warehouse to the target level in 2025, when the warehouse will need to provide an increased level of processing:

• without the need to use additional areas;
• without the need to replace lifting and transport equipment (the existing PTW remains at the request of the customer);
• with negligible capital costs (only topology reorganization, implementation of updated processes, warehouse markup and WMS implementation are necessary);
• with the ability to make changes without stopping work.

Design of new storage area

AXELOT has developed two concepts for a new warehouse complex. 1. The first option takes into account the warehouse on the building spot (a building that can be used for a finished product warehouse if it is modernized), but two more buildings must be added to this building. 2. The second option takes into account the complete dismantling of the existing (on the building spot) building and the construction of a new warehouse building consisting of two blocks:

• Unit No. 1 - a high warehouse with narrow-pass technology, designed only for storing the target volume of goods;
• Unit No. 2 - low structure, to ensure all processes, except for long-term storage: acceptance, selection, packaging and shipment of goods from the warehouse.

The customer, participating in the process of evaluating various hypotheses, received the necessary information on all relevant storage and cargo processing systems. As a result, Empils used the opportunity to choose warehouse technology from two fundamentally different systems for storing and processing goods, taking into account their cost and implementation time, comparing the pros and cons of each system. The choice of the option with front racks with narrow-pass technology was due to the fact that this storage and processing system allows organizing a warehouse with optimal capital investments for the necessary flow of goods. Thus, it was the second option that was chosen by Empils management as the optimal one and formed the basis for the warehouse process design. Empils decided not to build a new warehouse in the near future, but to allocate resources to modernize the existing one, implement WMS, and make changes to the technological warehouse processes.