The innovative solution is located in Udea's new distribution center (DC) in Veghel (Netherlands) and processed its first orders this week. It consists of a goods-to-person ADAPTO system, omni-channel picking stations and Smart Item Robot (SIR) technology.

Udea is a wholesaler of organic food, natural personal care products and sustainable non-food products. The company is also the franchisor of the Ekoplaza chain of organic supermarkets and online grocery stores. For its new, centralized DC, Udea needed a state-of-the-art, automated solution that would provide the necessary level of availability, performance and reliability to meet its omni-channel requirements.

Other criteria such as capacity, user-friendliness, ease of maintenance and energy consumption had to be taken into account. A goods-to-person system equipped with ergonomic workstations was also required. Udea wanted to consolidate the activities of its existing DCs into one facility, and as such the new DC in Veghel will house all dry, ambient, chilled and frozen goods.

Vanderland's ADAPTO system enables efficient and fast delivery to stores (B2B) and end customers (B2C). The 12 meter high ADAPTO contains three temperature zones that can handle a wide range of products: a first in the market. ADAPTO uses double-deep storage for optimal space utilization and delivers a high throughput of fast-moving goods. In addition to eight ergonomic transfer stations, there are 12 picking stations, all of which have raised platforms to enable ergonomic picking.

A continuous order flow is assigned to the goods-to-person work stations. The operators can pick the instructed quantity for both end customer and store orders, with the SIR technology automatically taking over part of the picking. As a result, Udea now processes 10,000 SKUs and picks 120,000 items per day. The whole process is supported by a warehouse management system from partner Consafe Logistics, with whom Vanderlande worked closely during the development and test phase.

"We are more than happy to work with Vanderlande - it was a joint effort for success," says Udea's General Manager Erik Does. "Vanderlande successfully helped us with the technological challenge of creating an automated warehouse with multiple temperature zones."

Vanderland's Executive Vice President Warehousing and Parcel Terry Verkuijlen adds: "We were particularly proud to work in partnership with Udea on this project. The facility - for one of our neighbors in Veghel - has created a unique opportunity to demonstrate our technology close by in a fully operational omni-channel DC. Udea has a clear vision in terms of creating a more sustainable grocery chain and we are delighted that our solutions have been selected as an integral part of their grocery retail ecosystem."