India is the world’s fifth-largest economy, with a population of 1.35 billion, the country has demonstrated itself as one of the quickest growing IT hub in South Asia. However, India has also long branded itself with its lower wage structure and access to a vast labour market; and on the other side, it has a pool of young technology enthusiasts and innovators. According to the Global Innovation Index, India’s ranking went from 81st in 2015 to 52nd in 2019. Notably, Indian start-ups and companies are continuously making significant steps to further improve technological innovation.
TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS FOR MODERN-DAY WAREHOUSES
Today, more enterprises are adopting the use of technology into their warehouse operations, in the hope of reducing operating expenses and unnecessary costs from errors in order to keep their operations going ahead of competition. Many enterprises invest in an efficient warehouse design that focuses more on throughput efficiency, Just-in-Time system (JIT) inventory management and storage efficiency, for better profit margin. Technology such as the Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems can boost significant storage volume to help businesses to tackle the increasing consumption, rising energy prices and pace of commerce in warehouses across India.
TREND SETTER AMUL LEADING THE INDIAN DAIRY INDUSTRY BY INNOVATION
In year 2013-14, Amul Dairy has taken initiatives to convert their conventional storage into automated warehouse and started with Electric Mobile Racking system to store raw cheddar cheese as the required throughput was low and 100% selectivity was needed. At the same time, for the processed cheese (Finished Goods) Amul Dairy installed Automated Storage and retrieval system with stacker crane to optimize throughput and efficient storage using lower foot print area. Amul Dairy also implemented these solutions for other products like Butter, Powder, chocolates and RUTF product. Now, again Amul Dairy started to look at the expansion of its cheese storage facility, with the planned storage of over 6,000 pallet locations for their chilled room of 2,433 m² for storage and material movements in the warehouse. The total space was envisaged for the storage of ‘Raw Cheese’ on the Mobile Racking System (approx. 2100 pallets) and the storage of ‘Processed Cheese’ into the ASRS (approx. 4000 pallets).
THE TRUE MEANING TO CUSTOMER’S REQUIREMENTS AND PARTNERSHIP
SSI Schaefer’s proven ESX2.0 Mobile Racking System was a clear choice here for Amul Dairy as already 3 mobile racking systems are installed. However an ASRS system could pose minor challenges for a conservative number of pallets as Amul Dairy wanted to ensure its civil investment was optimal so the investment on the floor slab and the building height must be optimized to hit the sweet spot without compromising on the storage capacity and the throughput. This is where SSI Schaefer India's solution design team took charge to help Amul Dairy achieve the project goals. SSI Schaefer India began the search for the right answers to the customer’s pain points, and not just started deploying any ASRS immediately.
SSI Schaefer India‘s solution design team came up with a solution which is a ‘Single Level Shuttle a.k.a Mother-Child Shuttle’ multi-deep ASRS. Through the right partnership approach for the development of a high density single level shuttle solution, the remaining 3,936 pallet locations issue was resolved. The integrated design will now handle the highest number of pallet positions in the given space in both type of solutions i.e. Mobile Racking System and the High Density ASRS System.
SSI SCHAEFER Scope of Supply:
I600 Mobile Pallet Racking for 2,576 locations
High density single level shuttle solution for 3,936 locations
Pallet Conveyor, Pallet Lifts, Pallet Profile Check, IT Hardware
"At SSI SCHAEFER India, we breakdown the challenges faced by the customers into smaller problems and then apply a heuristic approach to solve these problems. More than often, this requires us, to fit the standard solutions in and also to ‘think out of the box’. We’ve developed an ecosystem of various solutions, partners & OEMs who trust us. Above everything, we have a conceptually strong solution design & engineering team to identify the complexities hidden in the obvious challenges. In this way, our customers always get the right solutions and combined with our indisputable customer service, it becomes the best experience for our customers. We have introduced the single level shuttle automated solution to the early adopters (Amul Dairy and few others) and now trying to cross the chasm to reach out to the early majority!" Suunil Dabral.
About AMUL: THE TASTE OF INDIA
Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative, based at Anand in the state of Gujarat, India registered on 14th December 1946 by farmers inspired by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to protest the unfair trade practices of milk traders and middlemen. The Union made a humble beginning with a collection of 250 litters of milk from a handful of farmers. The Amul model is a three-tier structure comprising of Primary village cooperative society, where the milk is tested for quality and collected from its producer members. Then the milk is brought to a District Union for processing and further value addition. Union also provides a range of inputs and services to village co-operative societies and their members: feed, veterinary care, artificial insemination to sustain the growth of milk production and the cooperatives' business. Finally, a State level Marketing Federation which is an apex body of all the district unions will be marketing milk and milk products domestically and internationally. It is a cooperative brand managed by a cooperative body, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which today is jointly owned by 3.6 million milk producers in Gujarat. With a sales turnover of US $ 1.1 Billion and a total milk handling capacity of 4.5 million litres per day, Amul Dairy (M/s kaira District Cooperative milk producer’s Union Limited, Anand) is one of India‘s leading provider of milk and milk products. Amul Dairy has an ambitious expansion plan in the coming years with greenfield plants and it has expanded their operations in United States too. Amul Dairy is also one of the key accounts for SSI SCHAEFER India – with multiple Mobile Racking Systems already implemented for the storage of cheese, butter, chocolates and Ready to use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for WHO supplies.
Suunil Dabral has studied International Business from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi. In over 20 years with global organizations he worked with, his experience encompasses sales, marketing, strategy in various industries like FMCG/OTC, Agri-commodities supply chain logistics services and Intralogistics. Suunil Dabral and his dynamic team have been working relentlessly towards positioning SSI SCHAEFER India as the best solution provider of warehouse storage solutions in a highly growing Indian market. SSI SCHAEFER India’s major success came from the strategic shift towards dynamic systems like mobile racking & shuttle pallet racking systems, and the competitive advantage has remained unmatched as a market leader for the mobile racking system with over 40 systems. He has won over 25 awards for himself and the companies he worked for, including more than 17 awards for SSI SCHAEFER India in the last 8 years. Today SSI SCHAEFER India enjoys a high reputation as the best warehouse solutions provider and also as a preferred employer in the region.
