Shuttle Rack Installation Case – UK Food Company
1. Project Background
BritFoods Ltd is a well-known prepared food and ready meal manufacturer in central UK, mainly engaged in baking, cooked food and frozen processed food, supplying major British supermarkets and chain catering brands.
The original warehouse adopted conventional pallet racking with manual forklift operation, bringing three major pain points:
- Insufficient storage capacity: Annual order growth reaches 18%, causing warehouse overstock in peak seasons and high costs of renting additional cold storage.
- Low operational efficiency: A large number of food SKUs and strict batch management make manual picking and layer transfer time-consuming. It is difficult to implement FIFO, resulting in high near-expiry waste.
- High labor cost: Labor cost is extremely expensive in the UK. Night shift forklift operators are hard to recruit; working in low-temperature warehouses also brings high labor intensity and potential safety risks.
Warehouse Basic Information
- Location: Birmingham, UK
- Building: Single-story steel structure constant temperature & low-temperature warehouse (0℃ ~ -22℃ zoning)
- Available Area: About 1350㎡
- Clear Height: 9.2m
- Pallet Spec: European standard EUR pallet 1200×800mm, load capacity 1000kg
2. Core Customer Requirements
- High-density storage: Double the storage capacity within the existing site without new construction.
- Strict FIFO mode: Realize batch management and shelf-life traceability to meet UK FSA food standards.
- Low-temperature adaptation: The whole system can operate stably at -22℃ with condensation prevention and low-temperature resistant batteries.
- Semi-automation & easy operation: Cooperated operation of forklifts and shuttle cars to maintain flexibility and reduce over 30% on-site labor.
- ERP connection: WMS/WCS system dock with customer existing SAP for real-time inventory synchronization.
3. Solution – Four-Way Shuttle Car Intensive Warehouse System
1. Core Configuration
- Rack Type: Four-way shuttle car intensive racking (FIFO channel design)
- Storage Locations: More than 2700 pallet positions, increased by 317% compared with original 850 positions of conventional racking
- Channel Depth: 12~15 pallets depth per lane, 6 layers, total height 8.8m
- Shuttle Cars: 8 sets low-temperature resistant four-way shuttle cars, adaptable to -25℃ environment
- Lifts: 2 sets vertical layer-changing lifts for automatic cross-layer scheduling
- Forklifts: 3 sets electric counterbalance forklifts for loading & unloading connection
- Software: WMS warehouse management system + WCS equipment scheduling system, interfaced with SAP
2. Layout Design
The warehouse is divided into inbound connection area, shuttle car intensive storage area, outbound sorting area and low-temperature buffer area.
Adopt double-end FIFO design: inbound at one end and outbound at the other, realizing one-way flow of goods to avoid batch mixing. Fire passage and maintenance passage are reserved in compliance with UK building regulations and BS EN fire safety standards.
3. Working Process (FIFO)
- Inbound: Forklifts place full pallets at the inbound platform → shuttle car automatically receives goods and drives into designated lane and layer → automatic storage and positioning.
- Storage: WMS automatically records batch number, shelf life and location, sorting strictly by production date.
- Outbound: The system dispatches shuttle cars automatically according to FIFO rule → deliver the earliest batch pallets to outbound end → forklifts pick up goods for delivery.
- Inventory Checking: Automatic system inventory + shuttle car code scanning recheck, inventory accuracy ≥ 99.5%.
4. On-Site Installation & Implementation
Phase 1: Foundation and Embedded Parts (2 Weeks)
Concrete strength reaches C30 standard with floor flatness error ≤3mm/m. Anchor bolts are pre-embedded; antifrost expansion treatment is applied in low-temperature area to prevent floor cracking under low temperature.
Phase 2: Main Frame & Beam Installation (4 Weeks)
Adopt European standard heavy-duty rack profiles with epoxy powder spraying, featuring rust and corrosion resistance, adapting to humid climate in the UK.
Install main uprights → cross bracings → layer load beams → adjust horizontal & vertical level with error ≤2mm. Complete fastening and self-inspection block by block, fully complying with CE safety standards.
Phase 3: Rail & Shuttle Car Installation (2 Weeks)
High-precision rail installation with straightness ≤1mm/10m and seamless joint to ensure stable driving of shuttle cars.
Commissioning items:
72-hour continuous operation test at -22℃; four-way traveling and rail changing positioning accuracy within ±5mm; linkage debugging with lifts for cross-layer scheduling.
Phase 4: WMS/WCS System Deployment (2 Weeks)
Local server deployment to meet UK data compliance requirements. Develop interface to connect with SAP for order and inventory synchronization. Complete full-process simulation and peak pressure test.
Phase 5: Training & Acceptance (1 Week)
Provide professional training on daily operation, fault handling and routine maintenance. Deliver English operation manual, maintenance manual, electrical schematic diagram and CE certification documents.
Joint acceptance by both parties with 72-hour trouble-free continuous operation, all indicators up to standard.
5. Project Benefits
- Storage Capacity: Under the same area, pallet positions rise from 850 to over 2700, increased by 317%, no need to build new warehouse.
- Efficiency & Labor: Inbound & outbound efficiency reaches 180~200 pallets per hour, 3 times higher than manual operation; on-site staff reduced by 42%, greatly cutting high night shift labor cost.
- Food Compliance & Loss Control: Strict FIFO mode reduces near-expiry loss by 60%, fully meeting UK FSA food traceability requirements; inventory accuracy over 99.5%.
- Cost Return: Annual comprehensive cost saving up to £250,000, investment payback period about 2.8 years.
6. Customer Testimonial
"The shuttle rack system perfectly solves our warehouse overstock and efficiency bottlenecks. With high labor costs and strict compliance regulations in the UK, this solution allows us to cope with market growth in the next 3-5 years without new land investment. The FIFO and traceability system fully meets the strict audit requirements of British supermarket clie
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