Patatas Meléndez, a company whose 4.0 production plant has positioned itself as one of the best in Europe, has launched a warehouse connected to its factory that allows it to process up to 180,000 tons of potatoes per year with the intralogistics solutions from Mecalux. In order to enhance efficiency, the Spanish leader in the fresh potato sector has revamped its entire logistics and implemented the automatic Pallet Shuttle system, with shuttles to increase storage capacity by 700%. Moreover, the company is able to control the condition of its stocks through the Easy WMS warehouse management system.
Patatas Meléndez, which exports 15% of its production and operates in France and Portugal as Meléndez France and Batatas Meléndez, respectively, holds a 20% market share in Spain. These new facilities are going to play a key role in meeting the demand. "We have developed a distribution model that allows us to reach almost every supermarket in Spain in less than 24 hours. We have absolute control of the goods from the selection and packing of the potatoes until they reach the point of sale," says Francisco Pérez, industrial technical director of Patatas Meléndez.
The Mecalux logistics software is the brain of the installation. It ensures traceability and a perfect preservation of the potatoes; two fundamental aspects for Patatas Meléndez, whose 4.0 factory is focused on striving for maximum quality. "The quality of our processes and products is non-negotiable. Easy WMS monitors the potatoes from the moment of their arrival at our facilities until they are shipped to customers," says Pérez. The warehouse also features the automatic Pallet Shuttle system, through which a shuttle moves the pallets along a 40-meter aisle to their storage channel. Then, the electric cart takes each pallet to the place reserved for it by Easy WMS.
Robotics is the link between the logistics and production processes of Patatas Meléndez. These are carried out fully autonomously through technologies such as artificial vision for the selection process or automatic guided vehicles (AGVs), which transport the treated potatoes to the storage area. Once there, the potatoes are placed on pallets labeled with RFID technology, which feature data on traceability. Easy WMS identifies them, classifies them by batches, assigns them a place, and proceeds to their automatic storage through a 50-meter-long circuit.
It is worth noting that all the mentioned robotics solutions aim to ensure that the potatoes are of an exceptional quality, while also making the company's processes more efficient. Innovation constitutes one of the biggest challenges in the agri-food sector, and Patatas Meléndez has decided to face this challenge by implementing the most cutting-edge technological solutions on the market.
For more information:
Judith Romero
Mecalux
Tel.: (+34) 93.261.69.10 (Ext. 4832)
[email protected]
www.mecalux.es
Patatas Meléndez
Tel.: +34 983 812 920
[email protected]
https://patatasmelendez.com