Food & Beverage

With the constant threat of spoilage and shortages in the food and beverage industry, today’s smart supply chains require 24/7 monitoring and well-planned warehouses that are designed and implemented specifically for stringent requirements. Having served global beverage businesses in beer, bottled water, soft drinks, energy drinks, and more, Twinlode Automation has the proven experience and turnkey solutions essential to elevate your supply chain.

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Challenges of Food and Beverage Material Handling

Due to regulations, food and beverage warehouses and handling facilities face unique challenges, including:

• Keeping up with inventory rotation, lot traceability, and SKU proliferation.
• Stricter training requirements compared to other storage facilities.
• Hazards Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) compliance.
• Regulations and compliance for organic products.
• Pests and infestation control.
• Food defense such as handling controls and sanitization practices.

Requirements for Beverage Warehouse Racks

Since food and beverage warehouses have above-average storage requirements, racking systems must meet these standards. Food-grade facilities have higher expenses than other warehouses, making cost-efficient operation imperative. Food storage warehouse rack systems must meet the following requirements:

• High-density storage
• Increase storage capacity
• Ability to be organized and cleaned
• Meet health and safety regulations and seismic code
• Support First-In First-Out (FIFO) for lot rotation and Last-In First-Out (LIFO) for storing each SKU in its own lane
• Supports handling and storing two pallets at a time

ASRS

Layer Picking

Drive-In / Drive-Thru

Case / Carton Flow

We offer many food storage warehouse rack systems, including:

• Drive-In/Drive-Thru: Drive-In and Drive-Thru racking uses deep lane storage to improve storage density. Access pallets from the same entry point or the other side of the racking system to support FIFO or LIFO inventory management.
• Case/carton flow: Case flow uses gravity to replenish cases to pick faces. This design makes products easy to find and pick at the front of the rack and provides ample storage space in the rear.
• Gen2: Gen2 seismic racks structural, closed-tube design exceeds global regulations for areas with seismic activity, while providing cost significant cost savings. Our Gen2 seismic racks are available in single-wide and double-side systems. The double-wide system allows operators to load or unload two pallets at once to boost productivity.
• Pallet flow: Pallet flow racks help with inventory rotation for FIFO inventory. The sloped lanes and rollers move pallets to the front of the racking to make picking easier and maximize storage space in single SKU lanes.
• Push back: Push back racking is made for high-density, multiple-product storage. Pallets are stored two to five deep, with new loads at the front pushing back previous loads. As pallets are unloaded from the rack system, gravity replenishes pallets to the front for improved product access.
• Selective storage: Selective racks offer quick access to all stored pallets and are ideal for high SKU stock or FIFO applications. The vertical upright frames hold horizontal load beams that can be configured to store the weight and size of your products.

In addition to pallet rack designs, Twinlode Automation also has automated solutions such as:

• Automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS): ASRS uses structural steel racking, robotics, software, and computer-controlled systems to load and unload products from storage automatically. ASRS improves storage capacity, warehouse efficiency, throughput and organization by reducing manual storage needs.
• Layer picking: Layer picking systems are used to build mixed SKU for high-volume staging and mixing. These systems also improve order accuracy and throughput speeds, allowing companies to accept higher order volumes.
• Palletizing: Palletizing machines automatically move products to pallets. The resulting high throughput is ideal for heavy-use facilities looking to increase their production and efficiency.
• Conveyors: Conveyor systems quickly transport materials from one area to another. They are versatile and can be used nearly anywhere for any product. Conveyors can be configured and tailored to meet unique application requirements.