S. Narendrakumar ＆ Co. - Everest Spices

'Material Handling Made Simple' at Everest Spices with DAIFUKU AS/RS

Founded in 1967, Narendrakumar & Co. manufactures 45 kinds of Everest Masala and other spice products, exporting these to 58 countries; the UK, Singapore, Australia and others, as well as across the home country, India. It has been the proud recipient of the Superbrand status five times in succession.

To meet the company’s target of producing 400 tons of spices daily at this 220,000 sqm factory, it has to stock 1,200 tons of raw materials. Previously, the raw materials and products were stored on the manual racking system at the old factory. Because operations depended on manual handling, it took time to assign raw materials for production. In addition to these issues, from a sanitary control and traceability perspective, it was clear automation was necessary.

To solve these issues, two unit load AS/RSs, one for raw materials and one for products, were installed at the new factory. The unit load AS/RS for raw materials, containing 2,160 pallet locations, is equipped with three S/R machines, ensuring the timely supply of raw materials to the production line. By storing raw materials and products in an AS/RS rather than on the manual racks, sanitary control has been improved, which is crucial for food products.

After packing in the production line, products are manually loaded onto pallets, where they are transferred onto the STV by forklift. Pallets are then transported to the adjacent storage area where the AS/RS for packaged products is located. The AS/RS has three S/R machines and 4,464 pallet locations. The facility drastically improved its shipping efficiency by adopting these state-of-the-art material handling systems.