Logistics & Materials Handling February 2014

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intersections and junctions, helping to alert forklift drivers and pedestrians of the potential danger of collision.

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This issue February 2014

Technology Add to cart, proceed to checkout

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contents 04 Bulletin Board Toll wins Coca-Cola contract Linfox wins Australian Defence Force warehousing and distribution contract

06 Companies In Focus

As a leading provider of high quality industrial PCs, Advantech DLoG presents a new generation of robust terminals. The MTC 6 is a rugged vehicle mount terminal that increases efficiency in logistics − in the distribution centre, port, or warehouse, and even in the deep-freeze area. Equipped with WLAN diversity, the MTC 6 offers the advantage that it is particularly robust in the most demanding of environments. The data connection remains safe and reliable, even in fast roaming situations.

55 years and still on a roll – How an Australian manufacturer changes with the times Going with THE FLOW: New truck design bodies aiding material movement

10 Storage Dexion delivers storage solution for Crown Worldwide Records

12 Materials Handling Design collaboration helps Boral achieve quarry mobile crushing solution Ensure compliance with pipeline upkeep and safety Conveyor belt monitoring can cut downtime

For more information on this brand new product as well as other services offered

by Advantech DLoG, please visit http:// www.advantech.net.au/products/index/ Digital-Signage-Self-Service/default.aspx or to arrange an onsite demonstration, please phone (03) 9797 0150 or email us at info@ advantech.net.au ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Martin Sinclair e martin.sinclair@cirrusmedia.com.au EDITORIAL CO-ORDINATOR: Vicky Validakis t 02 8484 0964 e vicky.validakis@cirrusmedia.com.au GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Dave Ashley t 02 8484 0710 e david.ashley@cirrusmedia.com.au KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER: Tim Richards t 02 8484 0829 e tim.richards@cirrusmedia.com.au QLD ADVERTISING MANAGER: Sharon Amos t 07 3261 8857 m 0417 072 625 f 07 3261 8347 e sharon.amos@cirrusmedia.com.au PO Box 3136, Bracken Ridge, Qld 4017 PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR: Mary Copland t 02 8484 0737 e mary.copland@cirrusmedia.com.au All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

ISSN 1832-5513 Copyright Cirrus Media. Published by Cirrus Media. (ABN 80 132 719 861) Tower 2, 475 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, NSW 2067 Australia Locked Bag 4700 t 02 8484 0888 f 02 8484 0633. Printed five times a year, Logistics & Materials Handling is inserted in the February, April, July, September and November 2014 issues of Manufacturers’ Monthly, FEN, Australian Mining, Electronics News, Food, and PACE magazines with a distribution of 30,000.

logisticsmagazine.com.au

21 Manufacturing A look at Veyance’s $32 million conveyor factory upgrade

24 Automation Lifting the standards – An insight into largescale distribution and food delivery networks

26 Supply Chain Infrastructure threatening Australia’s capacity to be Asian food bowl

Fuel tax credits A refund due?

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bulletinboard LOGISTICS AND MATERIALS HANDLING NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA AND AROUND THE WORLD

Toll wins $380 million Coca-Cola contract TOLL has won a contract worth $380 million over five years which will see it provide Coca-Cola Amatil with a range of transportation services.

The initial five-year contract centres around distribution, bulk distribution and interstate road, rail and sea transport, and will come close to doubling Toll’s existing revenue gained from this work.

Toll’s contract logistics divisional general manager Bruce Wilson said the contract enhances the existing relationship Toll and CCA have developed across the Asia Pacific region.

“To be awarded such an extensive portfolio of contracts from an industry leader such as Coca-Cola Amatil recognises the innovative solutions of Toll’s Contract Logistics and Intermodal businesses,” Wilson said.

“As a long-term supplier of transport services to the beverage industry throughout the Asia Pacific region, we look forward to working with Coca-Cola Amatil to improve their supply chain.”

CCA welcomed Toll’s ongoing commitment to safety and its investment in control room technology to provide greater visibility of the distribution process as well as help Toll optimise its fleet planning, on-time despatch and delivery capabilities.

Linfox wins Australian Defence Force contract LINFOX has won a warehousing and distribution contract with the Australian Defence Force that will see the creation of 600 new jobs.

Linfox will manage over 20 sites around Australia and provide warehouse and distribution services of all defence inventory handled through the joint logistics units with the exception of explosive ordnance.

Linfox CEO Michael Byrne said the contract will provide efficiency reforms for the ADF’s logistics network.

“Efficient logistics management is the core of our business. We have a track record in partnering major customers across the Asia Pacific to achieve supply chain efficiencies,” Byrne said.

“The contract further endorses the strengths and capabilities of the Linfox business.”

Byrne said the contract would bring 600 new people to the Linfox team, with the company looking at employing experienced personnel for the new work.

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infocus

55 years and still on a roll Richmond Wheels and Castors have evolved over more than half a century, though have remained familyowned and committed to manufacturing in Australia.

“P

robably in the eight years we’ve been here, we’ve quadrupled the amount of sales that we do,” said Brett Thompson, the manager of Richmond Wheels and Castors’ WA store, which opened in 2005 and which he joined in 2006.

“When we started the materials handling industry was quite competitive and people obviously took notice of us, but not seriously.

“And now we’re probably public enemy number one to every wholesaler in Perth at the moment.”

The Welshpool store – along with outlets in four other Australian cities and one in Auckland – are part of the Richmond organisation, which says it has – in what will likely be remembered as a less-than-brilliant year for Australian manufacturing industry – enjoyed continued success and its 55th anniversary.

The third-generation family-owned business, founded by Frank Winslow, began in the Victorian suburb it takes its name from in 1958, relocating to the industrial hotspot of Clayton, south-east Melbourne, in 1963, where the company still manufactures its products.

In its very earliest days it worked in steel fabrication for the building industry. Richmond acquired a materials handling company in 1961, and sold materials handling products under the LiftnMove brand.

Materials handling solutions still contribute a significant part of the company’s business, but wheels and castors – which became the focus of the company when Winslow retired in 1987 – make up the bulk of its sales.

“That’s our bread and butter at Richmond in Perth,” explained Thompson.

“You could say that for any state. We also deal with material handling and stack-style trolleys and appliance trolleys and platform trolleys and pallet trucks and electric and manual stackers… right down to plastic tubs and so on. You’d have to say that probably about 70 per cent of our 6 | Logistics&MaterialsHandling February 2014

earnings would be from wheels and castors.”

The company’s wheels, castors and rollers are put to use in a variety of industries, from hospitals to huge infrastructure projects (such as the Victorian Regional Rail Link project) to the resources industry.

Thompson gave an example of the Richmond’s engineering know-how being used to greatly reduce lead-times for a major mining engineering company through custom-making a product.

The well-known company was looking to source pipe-rollers for a project from Germany, however Richmond was able to provide an alternative. “[The engineering company] said ‘can you do these, we can’t get our hands on these for about three months; we need them in about three weeks,’” recalled Thompson.

Some drawings of the German product were made, a quote was provided in a day, and Richmond’s engineers went to work.

“The customer’s response to this custom job was absolutely ecstatic,” said Thompson.

“And this is what keeps those customers coming back. If it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg and it’s going to take so much time we to get we can do that at probably half the

price and in only a tenth of the time.

“That’s one of the custom jobs, but that’s just one of many.”

Thompson said that his state’s remoteness meant some businesses are used to long lead times and have been forced to become patient. A quick turnaround and effective service through Richmond’s network has been able bring about a better result than some clients had previously been used to.

However, keeping appropriate stock levels is a constant challenge.

“It’s hard to have all the stuff here, everything that you do here in the one place,” the store manager said.

“And a lot of things have to be stored in our existing warehouses, so getting things over fast enough and being able to serve the customer fast enough is also a challenge,” he said.

When asked of other regular challenges, Thompson said that protecting the dominance in the state that the company had established was foremost.

“There are a lot of challenges, but the biggest is staying number one in the market,” he said.

“Over here we’re pretty much number one.” logisticsmagazine.com.au

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Going with THE FLOW An Australian truck body manufacturer is bringing business home. Alex Heber reports.

H

igh operating costs have seen many Australian manufacturers heading off overseas in search of lower labour and input bills but Austin Engineering said that strategy isn’t for them.

Mining supplier Austin Engineering executive general manager for eastern Australia Tim Ekert said that despite having the capabilities to import it isn’t a tactic the company is willing to explore at this time.

“To date we haven’t been big on importing and exporting,” Ekert said.

“Our company’s got the option to do both but we’d certainly prefer to build locally and support Australian jobs.

“It’s always been our company’s policy; we’ve expanded from Australia to around the world.

“The way we’ve done it is setting up manufacturing facilities in each local market.”

The company has a large manufacturing facility in the United States which services that market as well as a lower cost site in Indonesia.

Closer to home, Austin has set up manufacturing plants on both the east and west coasts which Ekert explains enables the company to offer more to its customer base.

“Austin is working with customers to develop equipment that will have enhanced payload carrying capabilities and to offer more value-adding repair and maintenance services,” the company said in a recent financial report.

“The customer likes to come up and see [what they’ve ordered],” Ekert said.

“They can be heavily involved from the start, inspect the [product] on a weekly basis to see its progress.”

8 | Logistics&MaterialsHandling February 2014

Manufacturing locally also allows for quicker turnaround times and is cost effective, Ekert said.

“All our internal numbers show that we can still manufacture something locally cheaper than we can build in our own facility overseas,” he said.

Manufacturing overseas would require packing all the pieces into a container, shipping it, road freighting it, putting it back together again and then forwarding it onto a mine.

Ekert explained the process is rife with uncontrollable risks including weather concerns, and being held up in ports.

“Those types of risks are hard to put a number on when you’re quoting,” he said.

Located across the road from BHP Billiton’s Mt Arthur coal mine, the company’s regional manufacturing facility outside Muswellbrook, in the Hunter Valley, employs over 50 local people.

Austin Engineering was hit by the slowdown in the coal sector, having to lay off a number of staff,

but Ekert explains that diversifying and not just relying on maintenance work has been the trick to surviving the downturn.

“We’re a bit different to other mining services companies, we have products so we’re not just relying on repair and maintenance work or waiting for something to break,” he said. Austin Engineering business development manager Wayne Morriss explained the downturn has given the company time to innovate.

“The downturn has let us focus on new designs, marketing them and getting out there so people know about our products,” he said.

Morriss explained that twelve months ago miners wanted quick solutions but productivity drives and cost concerns means now they’re looking for new solutions.

“All our products are custom designed, we don’t have anything on the shelf,” Ekert added.

The company’s latest offering, the Westech Flow Control Body is purporting to improve truck stability and safety, aid in

dust control initiatives, reduce maintenance requirements and increase body life.

The three angled engineered dump truck floor is the secret behind the new body; it controls the flow of material as it comes out of the truck.

“It does that by the shapes and angle positions along the tray and there’s a lot of engineering and mathematics behind their positioning,” Ekert said.

He explained that depending on the body and type of ore being moved, for example coal or overburden Austin Engineering changes the angles for improved efficiency.

“The idea is that it controls the flow of material out of the body and holds material in the body through the dump cycle a little bit longer,” Ekert said.

In a traditional dump truck body the material being dumped exits the body by the material surging down the floor as the body rotates which can make the truck unstable.

“You’ve got all this weight hanging over the rear axle which makes the truck unstable and it’s not good for hoist cylinders, it’s not good for wear and that huge big rush can create a lot of dust,” Ekert said.

He said the Flow Control Body makes the truck more stable by controlling the flow of material, reduces the wear in the body because the material is shearing off itself, and cuts dust which is a welcome outcome the company didn’t anticipate.

“The whole idea of the design was to make the body and truck more stable when it was dumping, it wasn’t until we got further into development that we had these added benefits of dust suppression,” he said. logisticsmagazine.com.au

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storage

Dexion delivers storage solution for Crown Worldwide Records “There is an expectation from business networks, particularly those operating in the service industry that a job well done in one location will be equally well done in another. We therefore work tirelessly to ensure that our network delivers a consistently high standard of service globally.” – Jim Thompson, Chairman, Crown Worldwide Group.

I

n 1965, Jim Thompson adopted this simple philosophy to transform $1,000 of capital and a small Yokohama office in Japan into a multi-million dollar business.

50 years later the Crown Worldwide Group now operates in almost 60 countries and employs more than 5,000 staff globally.

Originally an international moving specialist, the Crown business organically evolved to meet the expanding needs of its customers.

Crown’s service offering now includes relocation, fine art transportation and records management.

Crown’s Records Management arm was established in 1983. Over the past three decades, the business has seen many changes save one: its unwavering commitment to delivering a consistently high level of customer service, no matter where in the world the customer is based.

When Crown’s Operations Project Manager, Damian Cross was looking to implement a new records management solution in Kuala Lumpur, one of the key deliverables was best-practice thinking that could be applied to each of Crown’s Asian markets.

“Our clients include government bodies, banks, and legal and accounting firms. These companies are accustomed to consistent regional standards across all areas of their businesses.

So, why shouldn’t they expect the same from their records management?” Cross said.

Though Crown had existing facilities in Kuala Lumpur that could store up to 800,000 cartons of records, Cross and his team had the vision of building a new facility on a green field site with the capacity to secure 4 million cartons.

“We work on more than 3,000 accounts in this region, for which data management is critical.

However, many of the businesses we work with do not have systems in place that effectively and efficiently store and retrieve data. Further,

10 | Logistics&MaterialsHandling February 2014

many of the existing models lack the appropriate security protocols, which is a major concern for businesses. Accordingly, Crown Records Management has an increasingly important role to play in the region,” Cross added.

Crown engaged leading storage and materials handling specialist, Dexion in 2011 to bring the project to life by installing a common regional standard of practice.

Crown was supported by Dexion’s specialised Asia-Pacific records management team comprising of Simon Ingram (General Sales Manager – Asia and Middle East), Andrew Plummer (Project Realisation Manager), and Tony Balit Anak Boniface (Design Manager).

One of Dexion’s key tasks was to explore the range of options available for the different levels of automation and racking structures. Armed with extensive experience spanning racking structures, fully automated, and end-to-end integrated solutions, Dexion the perfect for the job.

According to Ingram, Dexion had an existing relationship with Crown, which was cultivated well before the formal tender process began in 2011.

“In the years leading up to the Kuala Lumpar project going live, we’d already presented

and discussed a variety of preliminary concepts from manual to fully automated solutions. This process equipped us with a solid understanding of what Crown needed, so we were able to hit the ground running,” Ingram said.

Perhaps unusually for a project like this, the storage solution was designed first and the building then (metaphorically) wrapped around it. As such, it was critical for Crown’s partner to be able to work harmoniously and collaboratively with both architect and builders.

For Cross, the final solution was borne out of a comprehensive audit and consultation process.

“Each of Dexion’s designs brought something new to the table. Without that thoroughness, it’s fair to say we wouldn’t have ended up where we did,” observed Cross.

The new Crown Records Management facility opened in November 2012 with more than 750,000 carton locations. The facility’s flagship feature is a 7-tier, 27-metre high racking structure that maximises the internal building space, while still providing peerless document security and access. Each level is spaced and fireproofed with mesh flooring.

Dexion’s Andrew Plummer believes that Crown’s racking structure, Speedlock (Mk8) provides the regional benchmark for racking integrity.

“Though manufactured in different locations across Asia, it’s constructed to meet the demands of Australian Standard 4084:2012, regardless of origin. Speedlock (Mk 8) is standard and 100% compatible across all Asian markets, so parts and servicing can be centralised and streamlined,” Plummer said.

“Whilst AS 4084:2012 is nominally an Australian standard, it’s observed in Malaysia and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Some consider it to be the toughest standard in logisticsmagazine.com.au

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the world. So it fits perfectly with Crown’s vision of regional best practice,” observed Plummer.

Construction of the Speedlock (Mk 8) was not without its challenges. The building was incomplete when Dexion commenced work, however timelines dictated that construction of the installation couldn’t wait. According to Plummer, his team “was literally working under the stars!”

Despite it being dry season in tropical Kuala Lumpar, work was frequently interrupted by downpours of rain. The rains not only halted construction but also hindered access to the site, making it difficult to manoeuvre the enormous cranes required to lift the 27-metre high racking structures. These unexpected challenges made collaboration across the entire project team even more important.

“Collaboration was one of the defining features of the project. There were no competing interests or agendas – everyone was working towards a common goal and thanks to regular meetings, we were able to work through every challenge together,” Plummer noted.

Crown’s Cross agrees.

L“The M 0 Kuala 2 1 4 Lumpar _ 0 0 0 project _ B O Sbroke - new 1 ground 2 0 1 4 -

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for us in terms of constructive collaboration.

There was an open two-way dialogue between all parties at all times, which gave us the freedom to take on the good and the bad as a team.”

Stage one was completed in May 2012.

Documents were transitioned from Crown’s primary facility and several satellite locations soon after. Stage two saw the completion of Crown’s fine art and wine storage and specialised media vaults in November 2012, all of which utilised Dexion’s Compactus systems.

A fully operational site today, Crown’s new facility marks the first step towards a next generation of facilities across the region.

0 1According - 0 7 T 1to6Cross, : 1 0 the : 2Kuala 6 + 1Lumpar 1 : 0 0facility

offers a level of data security that far exceeds its client’s expectations.

“Documents can be immediately and accurately searched to a granular level, first to the correct carton and then to the correct file within that carton. In a hot, humid climate like Malaysia, we’ve also created revolutionary environmental controls to keep documents safe.

The design of the building interior and racking structures keep cool air circulating throughout the building without mechanical systems. This is a major design breakthrough within our industry,” Cross said.

As Crown and Cross look to replicate the Kuala Lumpar model across the Asia region, there will be even more benefits from standardisation when it comes to OH&S, unrivalled security, continuous improvement objectives and costper-carton savings. The successful launch of the Kuala Lumpar facility has set the future benchmark for a new standard of service.

“We’re deliberately aiming to exceed both legal and customer expectations. It’s only by doing this that we can truly future-proof this project and Crown Records Management’s offering in Asia,” Cross said.

February 2014 Logistics&MaterialsHandling | 11

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Design collaboration helps Boral achieve an industry-leading mobile crushing solution The Australian quarry industry’s demands for greater efficiencies as well as higher standards of safety and sustainability are driving a move towards in-pit crushing.

B

oral has implemented an innovative in-pit crushing solution at its new Peppertree quarry, situated at Marulan South in the NSW Southern Tablelands, around 180 kilometres south west of Sydney.

Due to become fully operational this year, the new quarry will supply the Sydney metropolitan area and greater NSW building and construction industries, with up to 3.5 million tonnes of aggregate products per annum.

The benefits of mobile in-pit crushing Construction of the new facilities at Peppertree started in July 2011 after more than a decade of planning. A risk assessment of the crushing process led to the selection of in-pit crushing as the safest and most efficient option for the new plant.

Boral Site Manager, Steve Parsons said the 12 | Logistics&MaterialsHandling February 2014

use of in-pit crushing for quarry applications has been a trend in Europe for some time but is relatively new in Australia.

“Boral is now looking to optimise its quarrying process and get away from the traditional load and haul methodology where you have a large number of trucks and people moving between the blast site and the fixed crushing plant,” Parsons said.

The mobile crushing solution implemented at Peppertree has allowed Boral to significantly reduce its mobile fleet with its associated fuel consumption, safety risks and maintenance requirements.

Boral Sydney Aggregates Project’s Senior OHS Adviser, Natalie Constantine, said the mobile crushing solution suits Boral on a number of fronts.

“One is the safety aspect – it reduces our mobile fleet so we’ve got less traffic movements on the site, which is much safer,” she explained.

“From an environmental perspective, it reduces fuel consumption and the environmental impact of dust emissions. “From a health and safety as well as an environmental perspective, it’s a really great solution – but most importantly, from an operational perspective it does everything we need it to do.”

Research into finding a crusher that could handle the planned production volume at the Peppertree plant led Boral to select Metso’s Lokotrack LT160 together with the company’s patented Lokolink mobile conveyor system.

Intensive design consultation process Weighing in at 285 tonnes and measuring 12 metres high by 25 metres in length, the Lokotrack LT160 at Peppertree is the largest mobile crusher in the southern hemisphere.

Extensive design consultation between Boral’s technical staff and Metso’s design team prior logisticsmagazine.com.au

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to design finalisation and manufacture has produced a number of innovations not seen on a mobile machine before.

One of the major challenges was to customise the LT160 to meet Boral’s strict safety requirements. To achieve this, Boral put together a team of designers, engineers, operators and OHS personnel to review the LT160 design and to identify any potential hazards and improvements before accepting the final design.

This was a new approach for Boral.

“We generally buy off-the-shelf plant and subsequently modify it on site,” explained Boral Project Manager Kai Kane.

“We spent a number of days with Metso’s designers in the UK then another two or three days with the designers in Finland to get the process underway. Subsequent to that, there were a number of video conferences that delivered the machine that we have today.”

Regular video conferencing between the Boral and Metso teams was carried out over a six month period and allowed various improvements to be made, with about 50 safety related and general design changes compared to the machine’s previous design.

As well as ensuring that the crusher conformed to Boral’s stringent safety requirements and was easy to operate and maintain, minimising noise was also an important outcome.

“At Peppertree we have to meet certain noise criteria,” said Boral’s Environmental Adviser Sharon Makin.

“We modelled the noise impact using real time data from a similar operating crusher to make sure that the new machine and its controls would work for us.”

Design solutions As a result of the design consultation process, the LT160 at Peppertree has a number of features which make the machine unique with regard to current safety practices.

Some of the solutions, such as guarding and using stairs rather than ladders for maintenance access, are Australian standards requirements while others are unique and arose during the design consultation phase and included using shrouds around the crusher to reduce both dust and noise; a service crane installed for jaw liner changes to eliminate the need for a mobile crane; and walkways that extend the full length of the Lokolink conveyors on both sides (rather than one side).

“Another thing that’s really interesting is the segregation of the electrical switch room,” said Constantine.

14 | Logistics&MaterialsHandling February 2014

“It appears to be all one structure but, when you put the crusher in situ, the electrical switch room has its own legs that jack up to slightly separate it from the rest of the structure so it isn’t affected by vibration when the equipment is operating.

“That’s a very neat solution and will reduce maintenance resulting from wear and tear on that part of the building. It’s another one of those really clever solutions that Metso put in place.”

Ensuring that the machine fully met Australian standards as well as Boral’s requirements before

conveyors. The fixed conveyor carries crushed rock from the Lokotrack to the fixed plant for further processing. A patented swivel mechanism on the Lokolinks ensures crushed material flows freely at all conveyor angles.

The Lokotrack LT160 can crush 1150 tonnes of rock per hour and needs to be relocated every few hours – a process which can be done in minutes by an operator via a remote console worn around the operator’s waist. The Lokotrack is moved to the next loading position and the unique technology of the Lokolink conveyors allows them to simply follow.

When blasting is performed, the Lokotrack and Lokolink conveyors move to a safe distance around 70 metres away. After the blast, a wheel loader cleans the quarry floor and the Lokotrack moves to the new muck pile. Operation resumes with minimal production downtime.

When the time comes to move to a different pit location, the Lokolink conveyors are disconnected from the field hopper using hydraulic actuators.

The Lokotrack and Lokolinks can also move from one level to another along a normal ramp.

The LT160 is a fully self-contained electrical machine. The track mounted drive of the machine is hydraulic while the grizzly feeder and the 200kW crusher motor are driven electrically so there is no environmental impact from diesel fumes. However, in case electrical power is unavailable the machine has an on-board CAT diesel generator which can be used to run the Lokotrack’s hydraulic system and Lokolink conveyors.

deliver brought the company significant cost savings by avoiding the need for site re-work and retrofits along with associated loss of production.

System automation and control

Anatomy of a truckless system In a conventional crushing plant, a drill and blast team blast the shot and develop a muck pile. A front end loader at the muck pile loads haul trucks which transport the rock to a fixed primary crusher. With the in-put crushing solution at Peppertree, an excavator located on the muck pile loads material directly into the Lokotrack’s hopper. The rock moves along a grizzly feeder that passes undersized rock directly onto the machine’s outbound conveyor.

Only the large rock that needs to be crushed passes through the jaw crusher, which is capable of processing rocks up to one metre in size. In this way, energy isn’t wasted on passing small material through the crusher.

Crushed rock is then transported to the fixed, in-pit belt conveyor via two mobile Lokolink

The Lokotrack’s start up and crushing process is automated by a Metso IC900 PLC-based system designed to protect, control and operate the machine. Hydraulic oil pressure and temperature sensors as well as conveyor and feeder speed sensors are located around the machine and wired to decentralised I/O modules that are connected back to the IC900 system via CAN bus. Critical machine parameters provided by the sensors can be monitored at the user interface, which is also connected to the control system via CAN bus. If any of the process parameters, such as pressure or temperature, move beyond their range limit, a warning or alarm is given at the display.

The IC900 is connected via the Metso Gateway to Boral’s Distributed Control System (DCS) and SCADA system so that all operation can be monitored remotely. The Modbus-based Gateway interface on the LT160 is connected wirelessly to an Ethernet port on the field hopper and then cabled to the site’s control room. logisticsmagazine.com.au

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Feed rate control to the crusher is a crucial parameter for process optimisation. Operating in automatic mode, the IC900 system can make adjustments to the feed rate or if necessary, stop the feed altogether. As well as showing on the IC900’s display, process parameters are sent wirelessly to a human-machine interface panel located in the operator’s cabin of the Hitachi EX1200 excavator. Cameras on the LT160 show the excavator’s operator what is happening within the feed process on the Lokotrack. If necessary, the operator can take over to fine tune the feed rate via the human-machine interface panel in his cabin.

A belt weigher incorporated in the first Lokolink continuously monitors product output which is displayed by the IC900 display on the LT160. A separate, specific belt weigher display is located in the excavator next to the humanmachine interface panel.

The automation system controls the entire additional devices (water spray system), the crusher start up process. The operator only has Lokotrack’s main conveyor, the crusher, the to start the LT160 then press the process start grizzly feeder and then the LT160 pan feeder. up button and the IC900 sequentially starts “The perfect template for a project” the entire system beginning upstream with the L Mhopper 0 2 1 4pan _ 0feeder, 0 0 _ the B ALokolink C 1conveyors, 2 0 1 4 - 0After 1 - the 1 0 machine T 0 8 : was 0 4 :delivered 4 1 + 1 to 1 :the 0 0 field

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Peppertree site in late 2012, the LT160 went through a three stage commissioning process (static, dry and wet) and achieved practical completion in the middle of August, 2013.

“We believe that the outcome of the design process will result in overall lower costs of operation,” Bolton said.

“One of the key learning’s for Boral from this project is that when importing plant and equipment there are a number of opportunities to adjust the design and capability of the equipment.

“These opportunities are rarely taken up by Australian industry. We’ve found that the need to partner with offshore suppliers is critical – and it’s achievable.”

While there were challenges with adapting the LT160 to Boral’s rigorous standards, Parsons said the project ran extremely well due to Metso’s commitment as well as the trust and rapport between the Metso and Boral teams.

“The whole thing worked very well. It was the understanding of what was required and the ability of both teams to communicate seamlessly that delivered the result. It’s the perfect template for a project.”

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logisticsmagazine.com.au

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Ensure compliance with pipeline upkeep and safety

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hemicals, waste and other potentially harmful materials accidentally spilled in workplaces can enter the environment through drains and watercourses and seep into the ground and contaminate the soil or groundwater.

Such spills are a major source of concern to both State Environmental Protection organisations and to national bodies such as Safe Work Australia, which has introduced its Code of Practice for Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the workplace.

The Code says companies must develop good handling procedures for workplaces to minimise the chance of such spills, and also have a spill management protocol in place to make sure spills are safely cleaned up.

One method of stopping and sealing pipelines that is attracting increasing interest and application in Australasia for maintenance and environmental protection applications involves inflatable pipe stoppers that can be rapidly deployed, easily transported and widely applied in remote, temporary and permanent industrial situations.

“Pipelines are a major component of such a risk management strategy and, while many companies are becoming aware of the issues involved, others have yet to understand them fully,” says James Maslin, National Sales Manager for Air Springs Supply, which distributes a broad range of Pronal inflatable stoppers suitable for all types of pipelines including concrete, cast iron, steel, stainless steel and PVC. “The issues involved in pipeline maintenance and safety are particularly acute during the maintenance season, when companies may be handling increased quantities and types of hazardous materials associated with cleaning, vehicle maintenance and plant upkeep, for example.”

The common factor with maintenance, testing and emergency situations is that they need stoppers that can be rapidly and securely deployed to provide primary or secondary safety and environmental security as required by both

by Safe Work Australia and State Environmental Protection Agencies.

“Sometimes such stoppers are permanently

16 | Logistics&MaterialsHandling February 2014

located in pipelines for instant remote inflation with compressed air or other gas where there is a risk of toxic runoff at different stages of production, or where spillages occur,” says Maslin.

“In other instances they are used to seal off sections of pipe where leaks are occurring, serving the dual role of enabling pressurisation of that section so leaks can be detected, then protecting the men in the pipeline from any product flows while they work to fix the problem.”

The enormously strong stoppers are produced by elastomer products specialists Pronal, the company that produced the inflatable bags used to lift sections of the liner Titanic from nearly four kilometres underwater in the Atlantic Ocean.

Pronal inflatable pipe stoppers are used for maintenance, testing and emergency tasks in applications as diverse as oil and gas delivery, industrial and municipal water and waste water, and pollution prevention in mining, energy and industrial projects where sealing and testing operations need to be conducted not only with complete safety and environmental security, but also with considerable speed, to maintain flows of liquids and gases.

Different ranges respond to the needs of particular industries and pressure requirements, with VPE and ORJ types being used for

pressures up to one bar and OPV types for pressures up to 3 bar. Higher pressure stoppers are also available.

Ongoing protection against contamination of waterways from spills into water and sewerage lines is provided by Pronal’s OPAP and OFR Pollu-Plug stoppers, which are permanently and unobtrusively fitted in water and sewerage lines ready for instantaneous inflation by remote triggering as soon as an emergency arises in industrial, civil and municipal applications.

When pipelines are not subject to an emergency, the uninflated stopper allows normal non-polluted contents to pass beneath the elastomer-coated Pollu-Plug, which in its delated condition mirrors the inside of the top of the pipeline in which it is located.

It is connected by an air supply line to an all-weather control panel and nitrogen inflation cylinder supplied by the customer and located outside the pipe.

“Where water flow needs to be stopped, inflatable stoppers are an efficient solution.

By creating an airtight seal within the pipe, they effectively stop the water flow to enable professionals in different industries to do their job and resolve the situation,” says Maslin.

“They are also highly versatile in uses such as testing air, gas and water pressure, locating leaks, and even allowing the injection of chemicals or dies into a pipeline when facilitating cleaning or locating leaks in designated sections between two stoppers.

“By using the bypass function within the appropriate stopper, chemicals can be introduced then subsequently either diluted for disposal or purged to tanker or reservoir. It’s very quick and clean, which is very important when seeking to eliminate risk as required by statutory authorities.

“The big advantages of the technology also include simplicity, portability and re-use.

Maintenance staff don’t need huge amounts of gear on-site and the stoppers themselves are easy to transport around plants to remote locations, where they can be used, moved on, and used again and again. They are an ideal method by which to achieve compliance with statutory requirements in a cost-effective and efficient manner.” logisticsmagazine.com.au

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CASI utilizes a pre-engineered approach to systems integration that is unique in our industry.

All systems are fully built and tested at our facility before they are shipped and installed. So any issues are rectified prior to delivery not at the time of commissioning.

PICKMASTER™ A-FRAME AUTOMATIC PICKING SYSTEM CASI introduced the PickMaster™ A-Frame automatic picking system in recent years, and it has proven itself in the field specifically for small items such as CDs, DVDs, small boxed items, as well as custom items which are designed per application. It is designed for high volume, split case item oriented picking. The modular design, makes it easy use as a single dispensed product or add banks of 20 dispensers as well as conveyors and sorters utilizing SolidSuite software and controls.

The PickMaster™ adds an additional high volume picking method to CASI’s SolidPick™ order picking module to go with our existing voice picking and pick to light offering.

PickMaster™ is an all-electric design, utilizing low voltage components using standard drops. The system is the lowest cost A-Frame system & may be arranged in various configurations to pick fast and medium moving SKUs. Items are dispensed either directly into totes or shipping cartons, or automatically picked to belt for optional labelling and sortation. Replenishment can be performed at any time without stopping the picking process.

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Conveyor belt monitoring can cut downtime LMH talks to Honeywell about the importance of minimising the impact of conveyors on their overall equipment efficiency. Kevin Gomez reports.

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onveyor belts play a central role in the mining, processing, storage and transportation of bulk materials.

They need to operate efficiently with maximum availability and with a minimum of downtime This is because at operations, such as mines, ports, cement plants and iron & steel mills, material handling constitutes a major component of the

production and maintenance costs.

Bulk material transportation is tough on conveyors, resulting in continual maintenance and parts replacement, and significant production and financial losses.

It is often labour intensive or difficult to monitor online all areas associated with conveyors. This can result in inadequate maintenance strategies and possible catastrophic production losses.

The Honeywell BeltAIS solution

suite allows mining, minerals and metals facilities and other production sites to minimise the impact of conveyors on their overall equipment effectiveness.

With visibility into the actual health status of conveyor equipment, users from operations, maintenance, reliability and other departments gain a consistent understanding, enabling effective planning and execution of maintenance.

Neil Freeman, principal

consultant for Honeywell’s mining, minerals and metals business talks to LMH about the technology and promise of BeltAIS.

What is the concept behind BeltAIS? Through talking to many conveyor users, service companies and manufacturers, we understand the need for a holistic view of the entire conveyor system. There is a need for a single view into the health

Conveyor maintenance can be costly and time consuming.

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of the conveyor assets, including drives, belt, pulleys and idlers, which is likely to incorporate a number of different measurements.

Our BeltAIS, pronounced ‘belt ace’, is a Belt Asset Inspection System and suite of products, incorporating a number of our existing solutions together with some unique monitoring technologies.

Additionally we are able to integrate existing measurements from any source and meld all of the data for a unified view of the conveyor system’s health. The BeltAIS product suite is being developed to include: Cover Defect Monitoring, Idler Monitoring, and Belt Wear Monitoring.

For Cover Defect Monitoring, we have taken technology that we used in the pulp and paper industry for monitoring paper production utilising video recognition technology, and we’ve applied that to conveyor monitoring.

As far as we’re aware, it’s the first of its kind to do that. The belt is basically a big loop that keeps going round. We need a starting point so that we can relate the distance from that starting point.

We can embed an RFID tag in the belt or we can paint a white line across the belt.

From that reference point we measure the distance and that’s how we can zero in on specific regions of the belt. We store all of the video on the computer allowing you to look back at a particular region over time and see how problems are progressing. The purpose of cover defect monitoring is to assess that belt’s surface and then be able to determine the maintenance requirements.

So, if you like, it’s designed to be a decision support to aid the maintenance team determine what they need to do for the next maintenance shut-down.

vision of the belt. That can take a little bit of time, as in a day or so, to determine the best position. Once that’s done, it’s really a matter of a mounting bracket and just zooming in on the belt.

So it could be anything as little as two or three days to a week.

BeltAIS Cover Defect Monitoring features video-based inspection that is linked to analysis and decision support software.

What about ongoing maintenance, particularly with a dusty environment?

Our camera is quite a smart piece of equipment. It has got an on-board computer and will provide diagnostics in terms of faults with communication and with the camera. Since it’s a vision-based system, if the

window gets really caked with material, you’ll be able to notice that.

However, our camera is rated to IP65 and it’s actually got an air window across the front. Dust should be kept off the camera in the first instance.

We can also pulse air across the front to clean it and pulse water as well if required. In most circumstances it’s going to stay clean with all these measures.

Additionally the camera is rated up to 100°C using an air cooling system. Air is pushed through the camera keeping it cool, preventing the ingress of material and keeping the viewing window clean.

So basically it will require the minimum amount of maintenance.

What is the installation time?

How do you use the system?

One of the key requirements is to make sure the camera has good

BeltAIS Cover Defect Monitoring examines the belt surface in real

logisticsmagazine.com.au

time and using video analytics it determines problem areas.

Information relating to the problems such as location, rating and images are stored for further analysis, reporting or comparison.

Thus a particular fault can be tracked over time to determine if it is getting worse and what sort of repairs may be required.

The images for the particular area of the belt can be examined, compared over time and zoomed in on to determine the extend of the damage. We also have a pseudo 3D capability to further assess the damage to the belt.

What are synthetic 3D images?

In order to do proper 3D imaging with perspective and depth, you actually need a stereoscopic camera or two cameras.

Since we’re only using one, it is pseudo 3D. That means it’s as good as you can get with the video technology and the video algorithms and it’ll give you a good perspective on 3D. But we can’t guarantee that the depth is a millimetre or one-anda-half millimetres. So from a maintenance point of view, the 3D perspective will allow you to make a good assessment of the problems that you see with the surface of the belt and then schedule the maintenance accordingly.

How can users derive the best benefit?

BeltAIS stores a log of all the information, but users may be interested in how to manage

all of this data associated with their conveyor systems including operational data.

The best approach is to look at BeltAIS as part of an overall equipment effectiveness regime, which can provide a holistic picture of everything going on with the conveyor system as opposed to just looking at individual bits.

That is, BeltAIS can integrate with other systems they might also have on site, for instance internal cord damage monitoring devices Some sites will also want the system to be integrated to their SCADA or control system to allow operators to monitor alarms and enable the belt to be stopped at the correct location for maintenance.

The high-speed, high-resolution camera is built for harsh environments.

Once implemented, what kind of savings can users expect?

If a belt fails, then there can be some massive spillages. One operation in Latin America runs their conveyor belts down a mountain through tunnels. At one stage they lost a belt and it filled up the tunnel. It actually took them a week to dig that out again.

Now that’s not to say that was necessarily a week’s worth of downtime, but what we’re aiming to do is to help prevent that sort of accident happening. If we look to iron ore or some of the coal operations, their conveyor belt can be running at five thousand tonnes an hour. The material on there is worth $100 per tonne; if the conveyor belt goes down, they could lose many hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour.

Is it targeted at the mining industry?

This particular solution is targeted at any industry that uses heavy duty conveyors.

Certainly in my assessment from a global perspective, I’d say that the majority of those are in mining or mining related activities.

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tax

Fuel tax credits – a refund due?

If you are currently claiming fuel tax credit then the ATO has released some required reading: there may be up to four years of refunds up for grabs. Tim Smith reports

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hose in the transport Item Vehicle % Comment industry should consider 1.

Concrete transit vehicle 30 Includes mixing barrel and all mechanisms used in loading and unloading of the whether the fuel concrete. powering their vehicles is dual use, for instance, used to 2.

Commercial buses or coaches 5 Air conditioning for passenger comfort. power refrigeration transport units, 3.

Refrigerated vehicles 10 Refers to refrigeration units of vehicles transporting temperature sensitive goods. as well as used to travel on the Includes fuel sourced from a separate tank or the same tank that fuels the main engine. roads.

If this is the case, a recent Draft 4.

Waste management collection – 25 Equipment of a vehicle used to lift the garbage bin to deposit contents into the waste Legal Practice Statement (PSLA) urban collection tray of the vehicle and to compact the contents of the tray. Includes front, rear and side loading and liquid waste vehicles. from the Australian Tax Office indicates they may qualify for an 5.

Waste management collection – 10 – increased fuel tax credit rate. non urban The PSLA follows on from the 6.

All other vehicles with auxiliary 5 For example, elevates work platforms, truck mounted loader cranes and pumping decision in Linfox Australia Pty Ltd equipment equipment for loading and unloading. and the Commissioner of Taxation [2012] AATA 517.

In summary, Linfox was involved sensitive goods in refrigerated mover on public roads throughout However, despite the decision, A D _ L MH P R I F E B _ 1 3 . p d f Pa ge 1 1 4 / 0 1 / 1 3 , 2 : 0 9 PM in transportation of temperature trailers that were towed by a prime Australia. one issue for taxpayers is the Fuel used for travelling on roads practicality of identifying the actual is eligible for a fuel tax credit amount of fuel used in the auxiliary rebate, reduced by the road user equipment. charge (in this case a reduction For example, with an from 38.143 cents/per litre to 12.003 air-conditioned bus for instance, cents/per litre). how do you identify how much fuel Linfox argued the fuel used in is used by a bus for road travel as powering the refrigeration units was opposed to how much is issued to not fuel used for travelling on roads; power the air conditioning unit? instead it was fuel used to power PSLA 3648 recognises this is an SAFE-D-CANT offers a wide auxiliary equipment and should issue that needs to be considered range of spill containment, drum qualify for a tax credit rebate, not and provides a solution for decanting and handling solutions reduced by the road user charge. taxpayers through an auxiliary 156 '(('%6+8'

+)* 37#.+6; /#07(#%674+0) #0& &+564+$76+10 The tribunal agreed and found in equipment apportionment table. :%''&5 7564#.+#0 6#0&#4&5 favour of the taxpayer.

The table, which is extracted above, details what percentage of What does this mean for fuel use a taxpayer can allocate to powering auxiliary equipment and your business?

Fuel with a dual use may now thereby qualify for the increased protecting the protec qualify for an increased fuel tax fuel tax credit rate. credit.

The PSLA discloses that it has For example, you may have application both before and after a truck with an elevated work the issue date. platform.

Which means there may be an 1300 134 223 The fuel used to power the truck opportunity for taxpayers to claim 1300 307 895 and thereby the elevated work up to four years worth of refunds sales@storemasta.com.au platform has a dual use. based on prior and current year fuel www.storemasta.com.au Which means that the amount tax credit claims. of fuel used to power the work platform will qualify for the higher This article originally appeared in fuel tax credit rate.

HLB Mann Judd Financial Times.

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P R O T E C T IN G O UR IT H EN V IR O NM EN T W S a fe -D -C a n t BUND IN G P R O D UC T S

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manufacturing

A look at Veyance’s $32 million factory upgrade LMH takes a tour of the new and improved Veyance Belting facility in Bayswater, Victoria.

Brent Balinski reports.

“Y

ou make an investment in a piece of equipment like this you’re investing for no less than 30 years,” said John Hamilton, the CEO since 2010 of Veyance Technologies, the US parent company of Veyance Belting.

Veyance Belting has just finished upgrading its Bayswater, Victoria facility after 18 months and a cost of about $32 million. Hamilton shrugged off any suggestion that such an investment might not have been a great idea in light of the apparent waning in enthusiasm for commodities, with coal and iron ore miners making up about 80 to 85 per cent of Veyance’s customer base.

“Iron ore mining will ebb and flow as commodity prices ebb and flow but it’s always ebbing and flowing on a very strong upwards trajectory,” Hamilton, who travelled out from Oklahoma, told LMH at the facility’s opening.

“All of the independent studies that look at the demand for iron ore, all of the studies that look at the grade of iron ore and the quality of iron ore relative to other parts of the world, the demand in China and the demand for Chinese manufacturing for export all say iron ore is on a strong upward trajectory.

“I’d also feel good about coal.

I know coal has its detractors at the moment and it also has its energy competitors, like shale gas, especially where I am. But it’s a very cost-effective source of electricity... So coal is always going to be an essential part of any country’s energy mix, and again the logisticsmagazine.com.au

independent studies say it’s going up.”

The upgrade to the Bayswater site – which was first considered in 2002 but rejected by the American parent company, before eventually being successfully pitched in 2011 – has been driven by long-term goals.

“So if [mining] goes up and down in any given year: don’t care,” said Hamilton. “Because we’re investing for a 30-year timeframe.”

The right chemistry matters Veyance, which leads its market in Australia and several other countries, puts its position down to providing a better value to its customers than anybody else can. It makes a point of mixing its rubber compounds and polymers – which

are purchased in US dollars, which adds to its competitiveness while the dollar remains historically strong – in-house.

“That’s one of the things that really distinguishes us,” Veyance Belting’s general manager, David Stone, told LMH. “You can have the best press in the world, but it’s all about how you process those polymers. The press delivers you a means to produce the technology.”

Though the factory’s capabilities have been greatly strengthened in the upgrade, this would not matter without the company’s materials science expertise.

“The technology that goes into it is those different mixes of compounds,” said Stone.

The company employs something like 120 chemists around the

world, tweaking and creating the compounds that will determine how well a belt’s surface will do things such as minimise the energy spent moving ore (or other things), rule out static, resist heat damage, and withstand damage caused by having huge amounts of iron ore constantly smashed up against it.

“If you’re looking at it from a customer’s point of view, a mine or even a port, the biggest energy consumer in the operation are conveyor systems,” noted Stone.

“So we’ve been listening to them and delivering rubber compounds with low-rolling resistance, which means that there’s less energy to try and push over the idlers. So it’s very much critical to be in control of that process, designing it, mixing it having control of the whole end-to-end process.”

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manufacturing

Stone points out that conveyor belt technology (and its associated services, which Veyance also offer) is not a simple commodity; if this were the case it could be created by anybody.

Veyance also develops compounds tailored to clients’ needs, such as those used in the incredibly lengthy belts for the Curragh Overland Project.

“If you look at the technology required to make these you see today the technology required, the polymers, the rubber design which we do, the actual manufacturing process – it’s not just a straightforward product,” he added.

“So I suppose the way our customers view it, while some of it’s a base price, it’s really the total package and what value we deliver to them.”

at its Bayswater site and has been operating in Australia since 1965, as one of his state’s manufacturing success stories, helping fuel power needs and move the state’s exports.

“This highlights, once again, that there is an important role for our manufacturing industry in this state,” he added, pointing out that

The boost in capacity is put down to three main investments: an investment in increased cranage capacity, a state-of-the-art press for the company’s steel cords, and a new hot former extruder.

The crane capacity investment allows long-length racetrack reels (typically weighing well over 30

Victoria currently employs more in the sector than it did two-and-ahalf years ago.

Manufacturing also contributes significantly to industry gross value-add, with the premier putting this at $27 billion for 2011-12 alone.

“So there is a role and a great future for manufacturing, but it’s manufacturing of the type we’re talking about today: highly skilled, highly technical, world’s best practise manufacturing, advanced manufacturing that is servicing local needs and creating opportunities.”

tonnes) of coiled belt to be placed on delivery trucks.

The press, by German company Siempelkamp, allows for the individual monitoring of each individually-tensioned steel cord that goes into the company’s belts, with huge productivity benefits along the way.

“What that enables us to do is now manufacture belts now up to ST10,000,” said Stone. “Before our limitation was probably up to about up to ST6,500. Our equipment was only up to two metres wide, this equipment’s now up to 2.6 metres wide.

“And then typically, if you look at the average press around the world, the average length’s about 10 to 11 metres’ length. This is 18.6 metres in length. So you think about then, instead of curing 10 or 11 metres you’re curing 18.6 with the same amount of people, same amount of overhead.”

Helping Victoria move Though most business comes from iron ore and coal miners, there are numerous other industries among Veyance’s client list.

“These conveyor belts are absolutely vital to the development and the economy right across Victoria and Australia,” offered Victorian premier Denis Napthine, who, like Stone and Hamilton, helped cut the ribbon at the factory.

“I see these conveyor belts that are made here used in my home patch at Portland Aluminium, where they’re conveying a 4 km conveyor, conveying the alumina, shifting up to the Portland aluminium smelter.

“I see them each and every day at the port of Portland, conveying both hardwood and softwood woodchips from our stockpiles on the ships going to Thailand, Japan and Korea.

I see them being used exporting our grain products. Of course a big part of the industry are the massive conveyor belts that are used in the mining industry in our north, with black coal, with iron ore and of course, in our own Latrobe Valley, with brown coal.”

Napthine was happy to list Veyance, which employs 173 people 22 | Logistics&MaterialsHandling February 2014

Ramping things up The upgrade project – which aims to double Veyance’s overall capacity by about 50 per cent, according to Stone, with earlier reports suggesting it will double the production of belts for its Flexsteel product – is being driven by local demand.

The demand for steel corded conveyor belts is massive, and Hamilton explained that – not including the company’s Chinese joint venture – the Bayswater factory creates more steel cord than any other in the company’s global network, with the new press to increase things even further.

At the far end of the factory is the hot former extruder, which starts the transition of the carefullyformulated compounds into conveyor belts.

“For our conveyor belt it’s not just the reinforcing material, like the steel cord, that makes a difference,” explained Hamilton.

“It’s the rubber that’s above it and below it, they play very unique roles. The one that’s above it is designed to protect those steel cords from abrasion or impact or things like that.

“The one below it is what runs on the pulleys and goes around, designed to minimise the energy consumption required to tug that conveyor around the loop.”

Again, both Hamilton and Stone stressed that the upgrades were still considered a sound long-term investment, as has with the recent efforts by the company to move into services in Australia.

For Veyance, the question is “what downturn?”

“For iron ore, if you speak to people like BHP and Fortescue, iron ore will typically chew through conveyor belts every two to three years, so you think about the installed capacity over the last six years, seven years of projects,” said Stone. “Really the installed capacity of conveyor belts out in the field has increased ten-fold in the last ten years.

“I spoke to BHP yesterday and they’re saying, ‘What’s the problem? We’re still shipping as much as we can get out of the ground.’ It doesn’t really matter about the price, that’s irrelevant, as they point out, ‘We’re still using conveyor belts and nothing’s going to change.’” logisticsmagazine.com.au

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SCHAEFER

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SCHAEFER R3000 - Multi Tier Modular Shelving We could not have come up with a more flexible solution to suit changing storage requirements. Schaefer’s multifunctional, R3000 modular, metric, flexible, shelving system is organised productivity like none other in the world. It is suitable for mezzanine, multi tier & high-rise storage applications. One system stores everything. It can be extended at a later date and is fully versatile.

Multi-tier shelving installations with mezzanines can be created using standardized components, thus optimising the storage capacity right up to the roof.

Some of the features are: Back panels can be either solid metal, mesh or open as desired.

Shelves are 994 & 1282mm bay widths, with different capacities from 100 to 400kg & depths 300, 400, 500 & 600mm. Grey enamelled finish.

Drop-in vertical dividers to subdivide shelf levels into pigeonholes for complete parts separation.

The slots, in the shelf, retain these.

Plastic containers Modular semi-open front plastic containers are available to store small loose items & exactly fit the shelves, without wasted space.

Another large R3000 installation with thousands of shelves awaiting our plastic storage containers

Drawer units 100 or 200mm high are available for 994mm bay width only.

Double swing doors for 994mm bay widths.

Lighting Modular plug-in ceiling mounted lighting systems.

Special automotive storage for body parts & difficult items such as windscreens, tyres, mufflers etc are also available. Ask our sales facilitators for details.

Conveyors feed & discharge products from a 2 level R3000 shelving installation

Shelving for tyres

Schaefer R3000 ensures the highest possible storage density with parts picking efficiency.

Shelving for bulky items

Shelving for wheel rims

A two-tier R3000 installation for auto parts.

Note the goods hoist we supplied

Mobile shelving systems

Fixed modular shelving

A very effective & large five level R3000 shelving system

Modular shelving systems

Modular shelving with full-height uprights

Modular shelving with bin front

Stairs

Railing Gate

Our “RK” storage bins are the natural companion for R3000 racking. They are designed for hands free picking as they hang off the shelving optimising the shelf widths & depths. Store smaller spare parts neatly and systematically

Providing the building blocks for the most advanced storage systems in the world

schaefer@schaeferstore.com.au www.schaeferstore.com.au Freecall: 1300 85 66 89 Freefax: 1800 68 68 96 LMH1402SS RING FOR A FREE STORAGE APPRAISAL

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automation

Lifting the standards Whether you are running a small food manufacturing business or a large scale distribution operation, logistics matters. Aoife Boothroyd reports.

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here are a myriad of logistical models that businesses can subscribe to, with the size, scope and nature of the business being the key determining factors that influence which model is deemed most appropriate.

LMH recently spoke to two food manufacturers that employ automation as a key part of their overall logistical operations: South Australian tomato producer D’VineRipe and cereal giant Kellogg’s.

D’VineRipe was established in

24 | Logistics&MaterialsHandling February 2014

2006 as a joint venture between food marketing company, Perfection Fresh Australia and investment company, The Victor Smorgon Group.

The company producers a wide range of tomatoes from cocktail sized, right up to the larger truss varieties. D’VineRipe has the capacity to produce up to 15,000 tonnes of vine-ripened fruit year round in its state-of-the-art, 27 hectare glasshouse facility, complete with climate control and irrigation.

D’VineRipe supplies some of the

nation’s largest retailers including Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and Costco, and delivers to all the eastern states, with a smaller concentration in Western Australia and South Australia. Most impressively, they do this within a 24 to 72 hour turnaround from when the fruit is picked from the vine.

D’VineRipe operates to the Delivered In Full, On Time (DIFOT) logistics model which is designed to measure delivery performance throughout the supply chain, and is geared to tailor deliveries to the customer by measuring how often

the customer gets exactly what they want, at the time that they want it.

As D’VineRipe is in the business of perishable goods, it is imperative that its operations run as timely and as smoothly as possible. To achieve this, the facility is fitted out with a network of automatic guided vehicles which run down the rows of each glasshouse to collect fruit, and then deliver the full boxes straight back to the pack house where they are automatically weighed, entered into a buffer system, graded, and packed based on variety.

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automation

“All the picking operations are manually done, however the automatic guided vehicles improve efficiencies by eliminating that extra operation of someone transporting the fruit back to the pack house, picking up the box, weighing it, recording the weight on a piece of paper and then entering it into a computer,” says Jon Jones, general manager of D’VineRipe.

“The vehicles enable all those steps to happen automatically.”

The automatic guided vehicle system was built for D’VineRipe

by Belgian company, Bogaerts Greenhouse Logistics. The vehicles deliver accurate recording data capabilities in terms of weighing the product, and also feature a built-in sensor, or a photo eye, that picks up if a person or object is within its range, enabling it to slow down or stop to avoid a collision.

When asked about the reliability of such a sophisticated system, Jones says that the system is almost “bulletproof”.

“It’s like any computer system, it is extremely reliable. Sometimes you can experience a glitch here or there, but the majority of the time it’s bulletproof,” he says.

Jones says that since the system was put in place over four years ago, operational efficiencies have improved even further thanks to various updates in technology.

“We are always looking for new efficiencies. We as a company have changed and gotten bigger, the technology in the automatic guided vehicles has also been upgraded and improved.”

Logistics automation is key to the operations of many businesses, however the processes and needs required by long shelf life FMCG’s sre obviously different compared to that of perishable produce like tomatoes.

Global food manufacturer Kellogg’s decided to make the switch from an almost entirely manually operated 27,000 square metre distribution centre in Botany New South Wales, to a system logisticsmagazine.com.au

that could automatically process high demand volumes whilst also achieving high storage densities.

The system back in 2003 was capable of accommodating 28,000 pallet positions across the warehouse’s 27,000 square metres, but the introduction of a new system saw the company achieve impressive storage and operational efficiencies that it did not expect.

Kellogg’s worked with Dexion, an international distribution management specialist, and supply chain solution company, Linfox, to create a more efficient and sustainable distribution model. The model incorporated an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) which was implemented as part of a broader Real-Time Distribution System (RDS).

ASRS is designed to tackle some of the most difficult challenges that FMCG distribution centres face including completing orders that cover high volume, fast moving and fluctuating quantities of

goods that can be subject to strict use-by dates, while RDS controls the physical and operational aspects of a company’s distribution centre from the receipt of goods to processing, storage, order fulfilment and despatch in real time.

Kellogg’s new ASRS includes pallet conveyors, robotics, storage and retrieval systems and IT hardware that enabled the new distribution centre to hold 32,000 pallets – 4,000 more than what was previously possible – within the automated storage component and the conventional section of the warehouse.

The new system enabled pallets to be stored in five aisles, six pallets deep on either side, with each aisle serviced by its own automatic crane. The ASRS enabled Kellogg’s to have the capacity to put away up to 90 pallets per hour, and retrieve 120 pallets per hour.

Another impressive aspect of the new system was the command

and control centre that provides a pictorial overview of the ASRS system, enabling the operator to see what the system is doing in real time and resolve any issues that arise in an efficient manner.

Since the introduction of the system, Kellogg’s has reported a 10 per cent reduction in pick error; production damage has been reduced by a staggering 85 per cent and labour costs have also dropped as only half the amount of forklifts are now required, even with the increased capacities.

In essence, the most important part of any logistical operation is to have appropriate processes in place, enabling the operation to run as smoothly as possible by eliminating inefficiencies.

While investing in sophisticated automation systems might mean a reduction in staff levels and a considerable investment initially, the productivity and long-term financial gains can most definitely outweigh the disadvantages.

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supplychain

Infrastructure threatening Australia’s capacity to be Asian food bowl: CBH Andrew Crane, managing director of Australia’s biggest grain exporter, CBH Group, has said Australia can’t assume it will be Asia’s food bowl in the future, with questionable infrastructure threatening the country’s ability to take advantage of valuable export opportunities.

A

ccording to AFR, Crane said rival nations were improving their productivity and lowering supply chain costs, allowing them to gain market share, whereas here in Australia, companies like CBH are struggling with increasing transport restrictions.

“Our natural freight advantage is not enough to guarantee Australia has a right to benefit from the Asian Century,” he said.

Crane added that some parts of Western Australia’s rail network were deteriorating to the point that CBH’s rail fleet can only use parts of the track at night.

AADreport _ L Ocommissioned G S I M O C T by _ 0ANZ 9 . last p dyear f found Pa ge

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Australia could double agricultural exports by 2050 to generate $700 billion in extra revenue, but investing in infrastructure would be critical.

“We have to earn it. We are seeing grain being shipped from South America in Capesize vessels.

We are seeing Russia improving its grain quality and displacing Australian grain out of the Middle East and proving to be very competitive in to Asia,” Crane said.

CBH is Australia’s largest cooperative, owned by 4,300 farmers and is considering an expansion on the east coast as part of its efforts to compete with GrainCorp.

Crane said West Australian farmers have 1 9 / 2 2 / 0 9 , from 4 : an 0 $175 7 Pmillion M benefited enormously

acquisition of new rail cars, boosting productivity and cutting prices for growers, but a decaying rail network, which is leased by the West Australian government to Brookfield Rail, is still a key concern.

“For varying reasons, the amount of capital going in to it is not enough to maintain it at an acceptable fit for purpose use,” Crane said.

A spokeswoman for West Australian transport minister Troy Buswell said the government had committed $352 million to upgrade rail and road infrastructure in the state’s wheat belt, but said Brookfield was responsible for the maintenance of the rail lines, and the future of the network was a commercial matter.

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technology

Add to cart, proceed to checkout How the rise in online shopping is forcing Australian and New Zealand distribution centres to evolve.

R

ecent changes to consumer purchasing habits are forcing Australian and New Zealand manufacturers to change the way they manage picking and distribution. As with any shift in consumer purchasing habits, there is the potential for organisations to capitalise on the changing marketplace by integrating innovative technology to better facilitate their service offering to customers.

As phone orders and in-store purchases are increasingly being replaced by a deluge of online orders, organisations are looking at a range of different options to replace outdated process and technology.

For the distribution centre, the most drastic change has been the need to enable workers to accurately and efficiently pick small or individual items for an online order, rather than bulk pick a large number of goods for distribution to a retail store. With leading Australian retail brands responding to this shift in customer behavior, the bar has been lifted in terms of a service offering for the consumer.

A July 2013 report, conducted by independent research firm Frost & Sullivan, projected that online retail sales will continue to grow strongly, and are expected to account for 7% of total retail sales across Australia and New Zealand.

Phil Harpur, Senior Research Manager, Australia & New Zealand ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan said: “We expect continued growth in online sales over the next five years with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.1%. Online sales as a percentage of total retail sales are predicted to increase from 7.0% in 2013 to 9.8% by 2017.

“Large local retail chains such as Harvey Norman, Myer and David Jones have been

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improving and expanding their online offerings and this has raised the overall range of goods and services available locally. Increased online presence of these large retailers has also raised awareness for all local online retailers.”

So with the potential value of online shopping revenue set to increase in the coming years, it is important for organisations to reassess how they manage and distribute online orders to the consumer in a timely, accurate and efficient manner.

The majority of these variables are

primarily affected by warehouse staff, equipment and systems. Therefore it is important that organisations looking to shift, grow or improve their online sales capacity are aware of technology in this space that has been shown to improve this facet of operations.

Many leading Australian retailers are looking to, or already have, implemented an integrated voice solution into their supply chains to better manage and facilitate online orders. This is because of the unique range of benefits that a voice solution offers upon implementation.

In the warehouse, voice technology has already gained a reputation for speed and accuracy when stacked up against competing technologies.

For example, upon deployment of Vocollect

voice technology, Brakes, a leading food service supplier, achieved productivity gains of 15 percent.

Another Vocollect customer Holland & Barrett, Europe’s leading retailer of Vitamins, Minerals and Herbal Supplements, recorded an accuracy rate of 99.5 percent and a 75 percent reduction in the need for agency staff following the implementation of Vocollect voice technology.

The technology has made picking orders significantly easier, with some Vocollect customers being able to pick up to 48 individual orders at a time with just one single pass through the warehouse. This is something that wouldn’t have been possible using traditional picking methods.

These examples highlight the potential speed and accuracy benefits a voice solution brings to the table. With any online purchase, customers will often look to the timeliness of delivery as one of the key decision makers when deciding whether or not to make future purchases. With voice technology in place, companies can guarantee prompt delivery, positively differentiating their service from competitors without a voice enabled solution in place.

Similarly, the accuracy of the order upon delivery can be a deciding factor when it comes to generating repeat business. Very rarely will a customer make the leap of faith with their ordering if they order a men’s blue t-shirt and receive a pink dress instead.

With individual online purchases looking set to significantly increase within Australia and New Zealand over the coming years, it will be important for manufacturers and distributors to ensure that they have the equipment in place to best cope with the pressures that individual pick-to-order processed generate.

The proven ability for voice-assisted picking to vastly reduce human error and increase efficiency means that this technology will be one that is increasingly turned to in years to come.

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