Intelligent supply of production at Hügli

Hügli Nahrungsmittel GmbH has invested around 30 million euros in the expansion of its Radolfzell site in Germany. In line with the motto "Culinary, creativity, speed", Hügli offers a range of products from antipasti, bouillons and roasts to ready meals, sports nutrition, soups and seasonings. Catering customers, companies in the food industry and retail organizations from all over Europe rely on the expertise of the Hügli Group. Locations in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, England, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic guarantee customer proximity. In Radolfzell, the Hügli Group's largest production site, all types of dry blended products such as soups, sauces, bouillons, seasonings, desserts and ready meals are produced.

One of the most modern production facilities for dry blended products in Europe

Hügli, Radolfzell, has one of the most modern production facilities for dry blended products with an attached warehouse.

In order to further optimize processes and shorten delivery times, a new production facility, including a warehouse, for mixing semi-finished products was built in Radolfzell. The new building, in which the Klinkhammer Group has implemented the intralogistics, includes the mixing plant with a connected automatic high-bay warehouse with over 11,000 storage spaces for raw materials, packaging and finished goods. A two-aisle automatic container warehouse (AKL) with approx. 8,800 containers is also linked to production by means of conveyor technology. It is intended for very small quantities and as an order consolidation buffer for premixed batches. With the conveyor connection of ten production workstations, the raw material silos, the refrigerated warehouse with 300 pallet spaces and six gravity dispatch conveyors, one of the most modern production facilities for dry blended products in Europe has been created.

Automated raw material handling - storage, mixing, filling, dispatch The special feature is the optimization of the complex material flows. The conveyor connection of the three warehouses, the raw material silos and the production and picking areas located on three levels significantly shortens the distances and increases process reliability. Automation also ensures the required output and quality. 30,000 tons were produced annually in three-shift operation. Now the capacity for 40,000 tons is available in two-shift operation. Reliable feeding of the mixing plant with various raw materials and pre-mixed batches, weighing and filling into stainless steel containers, returning the raw materials to the warehouse and empties management are complex processes that are also perfectly coordinated in the IT landscape. This has resulted in one of the most modern production facilities for dry blended products in Europe. Automation and digitalization set new standards in quality assurance and increase the efficiency of the processes.

"We had clear ideas about how automatic material handling and logistics should interact in the new center," says Dirk Balzer, Head of Manufacturing at Hügli Holding AG.

Facts and figures

• 3-aisle automated high-bay warehouse, 11,000 pallet spaces
• 2-aisle mini-load warehouse for 8,800 containers
• Manual refrigerated warehouse, 300 pallet spaces
• 10 production workstations connected to the conveyor system: Filling, decanting, weighing, mixing
• Klinkhammer material flow computer and system visualization
• 6 gravity loading lanes for pallets
• 5 loading ramps

"Our aim is to meet the high quality requirements of our customers with innovative products better than our competitors. The intralogistics concept optimizes the material flows between all logistics and production areas, with an additional buffer for expansions." The focus is always on a high degree of flexibility for future work steps and possible production expansions.

Conveyor connection to production on several levels - logistics bridge

Hügli filling line: from bouillons to sports nutrition, soups or seasonings.

To ensure the highest supply quality and reliability in production, the high-bay pallet warehouse is connected to the adjacent production building via a conveyor bridge and elevators. Pallets with raw materials as bagged goods or BigBags as well as packaging are stored in the pallet high-bay warehouse. The refrigerated warehouse is used for fats. The main components of boullions or soups, for example, are available in external raw material silos. For further processing, raw materials from the high-bay warehouse are either mixed directly into a stainless steel dosing container coming from the raw material silos or filled into containers with foil bags and lids and weighed. The containers are returned as a batch to the automated small parts warehouse, which serves as an order consolidation buffer. The pallets are mixed and repacked into containers with the aid of lifting devices, bulk constructions and scales.

Material flow computer and interfaces to the existing system landscape

The heart of an automated material flow is the intelligent software that controls the processes. Klinkhammer's material flow computer and system visualization are connected to the warehouse management software via bidirectional interfaces. The material flow computer can be controlled from any end device via an internal web interface and has a station management system that receives the transport orders from the higher-level software. Through additional route optimization, the material flow computer ensures that storage and retrieval operations are combined and empty runs are avoided. The gravity roller conveyors in the outgoing goods area are monitored by fill level sensors. The material flow computer thus controls the capacity monitoring of the loading lanes.

www.huegli.com/dewww.klinkhammer.com