There you have it – in the most modern salad factory in the northern hemisphere. Everything is perfectly organized in the highly automated storage solution that SSI Schäfer implemented for "Fresh Servant," the market leader in ready-to-eat vegetable mixes, in Edsevö, Finland. Even more than that.
Even before Fresh Servant was officially founded in 1995, the company was already delivering vegetables directly to the doorsteps of neighbors in a Finnish village back in the 1970s. But the small car used to deliver the orders back then soon became insufficient.
Staying true to its origins
The company grew rapidly – and remained true to its origins: The service-oriented character, already rooted in its name, remains paramount, along with the goal of reliably supplying customers with fresh food and making a healthy everyday life easier for them.
As is always the case, with steady growth come increased demands on logistics. In particular, to be able to deliver the wide variety of packaged salads fresh to shops and tables throughout Europe, an efficient warehouse is needed that can keep pace with the growing demand.
Close cooperation
Fresh Servant contacted the intralogistics experts at SSI Schäfer. This marked the beginning of a shared success story, characterized by close and personal collaboration from the initial automation concept to the implementation of the complete system. As a result of this teamwork, a highly automated warehouse solution implemented at the Edsevö site.
Juha Tiitto, Head of Logistics and Supply Chain at Fresh Servant: “Together, we have actively further developed the processes. We want to continue doing this in the future.” They succeeded in optimally adapting the scalable system, with state-of-the-art shuttle technology, ergonomic picking areas, and smart software, to the needs of the food retailer.
10,500 container storage spaces
The shuttle system is the heart of the automation solution, creating a total of 10,500 container storage locations across two aisles. In addition to its enormous storage capacity, the shuttle warehouse ensures a seamless material flow at ideal temperatures: 58 shuttles enable the fast and safe storage and retrieval of ready-to-eat fresh salads in the refrigerated warehouse. Containers are transported from the packaging lines to the shuttle warehouse via a conveyor system, from where they are then automatically dispatched to order picking. Thanks to the seamless integration with the pre-storage area and the goods-to-person workstations, Fresh Servant can significantly increase its throughput with the new system.
J. Tiitto
In the manual areas, particular emphasis was placed on ergonomic workstations: In a flexible picking area, suitable for one to five people depending on capacity, medium- and slow-moving items are picked using the pick-by-light system. A separate empty container buffer is also available to guarantee smooth processes.
Separate container buffer
After order picking, the customer containers are returned to the shuttle warehouse and, at the time of dispatch, transported via conveyor system to the palletizing area. The completed pallets are then transported to the shipping area by forklift.
Thea WAMAS Control Center central information platform and seamlessly maps all material flows. This smart tool supports comprehensive order processing and continuously delivers all important data on the technical condition of the system in real time.
Fresh Servant is already planning to expand SSI Schäfer's optimally scalable system, thereby further increasing its capacities and services in the future.
