Demands of intralogistics 2023. New technologies, products, approaches

Ukrainian businesses evacuated production sites to the West of Ukraine, which later became a logistics hub. Intralogistics managers and Ukrainian businesses faced the following challenges:

• destruction of logistics centers, loss of warehouses;
• the need for dense storage, speed and quality of service, minimizing errors;
• the need for energy saving;
• rotation of employees at all levels of logistics;
• rising prices for raw materials, and goods.

The second year of the full-scale war in Ukraine saw an active acceleration of production recovery, growth in sales volumes, and changes in their structure. Warehouses have resorted to the cross-docking mode, humanitarian cargo handling has become extremely important.

New approaches and technologies of logistics – automation of intralogistics

For 10 years KAPELOU has been cooperating with Ukrainian companies in the field of e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, postal and courier services, automotive industry, manufacturing, distribution, retail. We develop and implement effective solutions for intralogistics based on conveyors, sorting, industrial robots, machine vision, weight and dimensional measurement equipment, for selection and picking, and provide unique IT solutions. We deeply understand the needs of Ukrainian business and produce technologies that help to meet the challenges of modern intralogistics. Below we tell you about these intralogistics technologies in more detail.

Space optimization is a key challenge in modern intralogistics

As demand for storage space rises, so does the cost of warehouses. Our advanced intralogistics technology solves this problem by offering maximum space efficiency and saving your money.

Self-supporting warehouses

Self-supporting warehouses are cost-effective, as they avoid additional lighting, heating and storage costs and guarantee efficient use of the available space. In a classic warehouse design, you have to take into account the costs of shelving, loading equipment, utilities and personnel, whereas a self-supporting warehouse allows you to optimize your storage space and save on maintenance costs.

UnitHub® – an automated system for storing and dispensing orders

UnitHub®’s temperature-controlled storage and automated order dispensing technology accommodates large numbers of SKUs in a minimal footprint and handles them without the need of warehouse staff. As a dispensing point, UnitHub® is characterized by the following features:

• fast loading;
• equipped with camera and software;
• scalable in height, which saves on installation space;
• climate control, which significantly extends the UnitHub®’s functionality and allows for the storage of goods requiring special temperature conditions,
• such as foodstuffs and medicines.

Goods-to-Person Technology

Another challenge of intralogistics is the shortage of staff and the need to optimize operator’s routes. In order to solve these problems, it is necessary to concentrate more intralogistics processes on one area, to use equipment for quick delivery to operators. For this purpose, we equip our customers’ warehouses with conveyor equipment, robots, A-Frame and other intralogistics technologies for placement and picking that work according to the “Goods-to-Person” method. We’ll talk about them next.

The advantage of the goods-to-person concept is the reduction of the operator’s route. This saves time, because workers stay at their workplaces and the goods are automatically moved to the picking station.

KAPELOU’s technology, an AS/RS (automated storage & retrieval system), is called GNOM. The robot transports goods to the packaging stations, and contributes to increased picking accuracy. The equipment eliminates unnecessary runs of pickers, which enhances storage density by 80-400%.

Buffer sequencer – conveyor-based equipment that processes up to 600 trays per hour. It forms waves of orders according to a specified criterion and sequentially delivers them in batches to the sorter’s workplace. Scalability with increased order volume, improved human labor productivity, minimal operator involvement in the picking process – all these advantages of the buffer sequencer make it possible to process significantly more in a shorter time and solve the problem of peak load in highly dynamic warehouses of e-commerce, FMCG, manufacturing and distribution.

Conveyor-based equipment automates the movement of a variety of goods – crates, trays, boxes, pallets, small items, packages, envelopes – between warehouse areas. It optimizes handling costs and maximizes the productivity of warehousing activities. Thanks to our own production facilities we guarantee high quality of conveyor equipment in accordance with European standards.

A-Frame is KAPELOU’s product for increasing picking productivity

A-Frame is a technological equipment for intralogistics that is ideal for the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and tobacco industries, as it handles lightweight piece goods. It has a throughput capacity of 20,500 orders per hour with only one operator. To increase sorting units in one place and optimize multi-order processing, we have developed an intralogistics solution based on A-Frame and a robot with 8 carriages. The robot picks 8 items from the A-Frame at a time and sorts them into cells.

Intralogistics equipment for automated pallet handling

Many of our customers use pallets in their warehouse to store raw materials, machinery, auto parts, FMCG. Compared to manual pallet handling methods, KAPELOU’s modular and reliable systems based on vertical conveyors, roller and chain conveyors, gravity flow racks, unloading sections, stackers, weight and dimension modules help you transport three times more pallets per hour without additional staff.

For example, the vertical conveyor is suitable for transporting pallets weighing up to 1,200 kg. The compact size and block design make it easy to integrate it into any warehouse.

Gravity flow racks reduce the time required to move pallets, increase productivity of handling and provide dense storage due to the absence of unnecessary aisles between the racks. With gravity flow racks, you can raise turnover and storage space by up to 60%.

Rapid integration of equipment in the warehouse

We realize that intralogistics must function continuously for the sustainable operation of critical infrastructure. That’s why our R&D team is constantly improving our WXS software, a no-code, plug-and-play platform that supports different types of intralogistics equipment and integrates all automated products into a single application. Thanks to our own software and ready-made modules, we can launch small and medium-sized projects in the shortest possible time, with a minimum number of engineers.

Automation of intralogistics – an upgrade for Ukrainian businesses

Automation is an effective tool that not just keeps business afloat, but makes it efficient, competitive, reliable and profitable in various conditions. This is demonstrated by our partners who have passed the way of struggling with unpredictable circumstances.

Automation solves the main problems of intralogistics – shortage of warehouse workers, takes into account the need for saving resources and processing a large number of orders many times faster. Our qualified specialists will gladly help you in the choice of intralogistics technologies that will fully meet the needs of your business. For this purpose, fill out the Contact Us form using the active link. Together we will solve any intralogistics challenge!