Mission Foods is a flatbreads and corn flour producer engaged primarily in the production, marketing, distribution and sale of tortillas, wraps, chips, flat breads and corn and wheat flour. Mission export to 50 countries worldwide and manufacture over 25% of the worlds flatbreads. A new state of the art facility, manufacturing and distribution, has been completed at Epping, Victoria.
Supporting multiple production lines is a number of innovative Colby Storage Solutions pallet runner systems that achieve high levels of space efficiency, productivity and safety. The pallet runner systems store pallets up to 55 deep and provide an efficient interface and buffer between raw materials and production.
Standing three pallets high by four pallets wide, with lanes extending over 100m long, the semiautomated pallet runner system provides capacity for up to 840 pallets with stock rotation as FIFO (first-in, first-out). Combining the density of drive-in racking with the benefits of pallet flow, the pallet runner system uses self-propelled ‘intelligent’ carts to handle pallets in the storage system. The pallet runner carts operate on rails, which pass under each pallet location on each level of the storage system.
Pallet runner systems only require aisles for pallet entry and pallet retrieval, making them especially space efficient. This enabled Mission Foods to store nearly twice as many pallets in a 2,800 sqm area between raw materials and production, than would have been possible using drive-in or other types of high density pallet storage racking.
Because the pallet runner carts operate automatically and independently within the system, forklift operators are free to focus on bringing product to and from the racking, enhancing productivity and safety. When pallets are to be put-away, the forklift operator first loads the motorised Pallet Runner cart into the relevant put-away lane, then loads the pallet into the lane. Upon receipt of the put-away instruction, the motorised cart drives under the pallet. A hydraulic lifting platform then raises the pallet, and transports it to the required put-away location within the lane. Pallets are scanned as they are fed into the storage system, and scanned again when they are retrieved from the other end, providing real-time location ID and full traceability.
The deepest Colby Palletflo Live Storage (PLS) system built to date helps minimise energy costs by maximising storage space efficiency within four large freezers, housing mainly finished goods. Pallets of frozen goods weighing up to 1.2 tonnes are stored up to 16 deep on inclined roller tracks within the Colby Palletflo systems, which are up to three pallets high by 8 pallets wide. Pallets are loaded into the system from the rear, and roll gently forward until they reach the front face. When an empty pallet is removed, the next pallet of stock rolls into place, ensuring continuous stock availability.
Another Colby storage solution, Push Back Rack, provides high density storage of a different type for Mission Foods. As its name implies, Colby Push Back Rack works by loading pallets into the front face of the storage system. Each new pallet “pushes” the previous pallet further back into the storage lane, providing high storage density, but with FILO (first-in, last-out) stock rotation.