Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits

Crown’s TSP Series Increases Capacity, Efficiency and Productivity

Achieve 20 Percent More Productivity

Improved Productivity

The TSP Series’ optional Auto Positioning System guides the turret truck along the most efficient path to the next pick location without operator intervention, boosting productivity by almost 20 percent.

Enhanced Operator Onboarding

The Auto Positioning System helps new operators become quickly acclimated to the order fulfillment process, reducing training time by 50 percent.

Improved Efficiency

The optional Auto Fence feature allows SGWS to use the TSP Series turret trucks to place pallets directly on a pallet conveyor, saving time while avoiding potential equipment damage.

“The productivity enhancements we gained were that our pallet movement throughput increased just over 20 percent, which was an eye opener.”

 

Mark Booth

Vice President of Supply Chain Technology – Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits

Application

Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits (SGWS) is a family owned and operated supplier and distributor of alcoholic beverages. Starting from a small bottling operation in Texas in 1909, the company has expanded to a team of over 20,000 employees, distributing more than 150 million cases of wine and spirits annually across 44 U.S. markets, the District of Columbia, Canada and the Caribbean. The company continues to grow, expanding its Lakeland, FL distribution center from 800,000 square feet to 1.2 million square feet to meet growing customer demand.

Challenge

During the expansion process, SGWS wanted to make the most of its additional floor space, deciding to construct a narrow aisle facility that would accommodate nine levels of racking. The additional height required lift trucks that could accommodate the lift height and capacity while meeting the company’s throughput requirements. In addition, SGWS implemented a pallet conveyor into their system, which required operators to place pallets on the conveyor as quickly as possible while avoiding any potential equipment damage.

Solution

One of the lift trucks SGWS selected for its fleet is the TSP Series very narrow aisle turret truck, which was unfamiliar to many of the company’s operators.  Consequently, SGWS utilized the TSP Series’ optional Auto Positioning System (APS) which automatically guide the trucks along the most efficient route to each pick location. SGWS believes the APS option enables their operators to perform at an expert level, reducing its training time by 50 percent. It also provides SGWS with long-term performance improvements, increasing productivity by almost 20 percent.

SGWS also selected the optional Auto Fence feature for their TSP Series trucks. Auto Fence controls the truck’s speed and access to specific areas of the warehouse, enabling operators to confidently place pallets directly on the company’s pallet conveyor with high precision, increasing productivity while avoiding potential equipment damage.