Connectwell Industries
Renewing Product Warehouse with Miniload AS/RS for Future Growth
* The video above is provided by the courtesy of Connectwell Industries.
Connectwell Industries Private Limited, headquartered in Mumbai, India, is facing an increase in the number of items and volume of goods they handle. They have been implementing various systems to improve the efficiency of operations, including their logistics system. These solutions have improved shipping accuracy and lead times and solved issues with inventory management and storage capacity.
Established in 1978 in India, Connectwell is a leading manufacturer of electrical components such as terminal blocks and network devices. The company's products are used in a wide range of fields, including telecommunications, railroads, and energy. The company provides products in more than 70 countries produced at its headquarters plant and sold by domestic and overseas sales offices.
In recent years, the company's business has continued to grow due to an increase in demand and expansion of sales channels along with India's economic growth.
The production volume of terminal blocks, the company's main product, exceeds 400,000 units per day at the main plant, and some products must be outsourced.
Products are stored and shipped at a warehouse located about 1km away from the factory.
Previously, products and semi-finished products were stored on fixed shelves, and Connectwell relied on human labor for the goods management. Along with the increase of business volume, the storage and shipping capacity reached its limit. Connectwell decided to review its warehouse operations, introduce a material handling system, and automate operations in order to overcome the logistic issues and achieve further expand sales.
In 2017, the company implemented a warehouse management system (WMS) to address issues such as low inventory management accuracy and efficiency, and dependence on worker proficiency.
Then introduced an automated warehouse in 2018 to solve issues such as picking errors, wrong shipments, long lead times, and lack of storage space. This was done by constructing a new warehouse on the site of the old one. In Mumbai, land prices are on the rise due to rapid urbanization and an influx of people coming to the city for opportunities. The space savings generated by the ASRS made the new automated warehouses was a very cost effective solution.
Implementing the automated warehouse improved storage capacity and shortened shipping lead time from 3 days to 1 day
The automated case warehouse is 15 meters high and has five stacker cranes with a storage capacity of 27,360 cases. The previously introduced WMS is still in use and is linked to the core system.
The automated warehouse is in an atrium supporting operations on 3 floors. Semi-finished products are stored temporarily from the third floor and retrieved by operators on the second floor. Finished products arriving from the main factory and contractors are stored into automated warehouse on the 1st floor. The products are then transported to the picking station according to shipping instructions, and after picking and packing, they are shipped out.
Cases retrieved from the automated warehouse are transported on conveyor to the picking station, where they are picked and simultaneously inspected with a handheld scanner.
Work area on the first floor for picking, inspecting, and packing for shipment.
The installation area of the automated warehouse is 800m2. This is equivalent to the storage capacity of 4,000 m2 of conventional shelves, resulting in a space savings of 80%. Furthermore, the productivity of warehouse operations has been greatly improved, reducing the number of personnel required for storage and picking by 80%, and the overall number of personnel in the warehouse by 50%. Connectwell was able to increase their manufacturing and processing capability with fewer personnel. Shipping capacity has also been greatly improved, and the lead time for shipments, which used to take an average of three days, has been reduced by 70%, making same-day shipments possible.
Customer's Voice
Ishwar Chemate, Vice President of Operations: Mr.
“Daifuku has been very helpful in understanding our current situation and challenges throughout the project and we are satisfied with their after-sales support team. During the new coronavirus threat, we are able to operate continuously with a minimum number of employees.“
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