Flexible automation for the Polish snack producer

How can a food company optimise its warehouse automation? Lajkonik Sp. z o.o. has comprehensively expanded and modernised its production site in Poland by implementing an automation system for storage and intralogistics based on STILL technology.

Lajkonik Snacks Sp. z o.o. has over 100 years of history. The company’s core business is currently the production of salty snacks such as salted sticks, pretzels, crackers and Polish talarki. It has been part of the company Lorenz since 1993. The company is the market leader in Poland and its products are exported to almost 80 countries worldwide. As part of its extensive expansion and modernisation in recent years, the Lajkonik plant has been extended to add an efficient and safe automatic high rack warehouse, which enables the forklift fleet to achieve low TCO in continuous operation.

Extensive modernisation

Lajkonik’s plant is located in Skawina, in the Małopolska Voivodeship region. Due to growing demand, the company decided it was time for a significant expansion. As part of the investment, the area was expanded and upgraded to include a production hall with recreation areas and a high rack warehouse with unloading ramps. The result was a project with an area spanning 9,662 m² and a storage capacity of 136,181 m3. “When we were planning the warehouse expansion, we were looking for a business partner who could offer and implement an overall solution with the lowest possible TCO and the shortest possible amortisation period,” says Marek Sala, CEO of Lajkonik Snacks. “When it came to making our selection, the most important criteria for us were highly efficient warehouse processes and low operating costs. With this in mind, the most attractive overall solution came from STILL Poland.”

Perfectly harmonised system

The modernisation at Lajkonik’s plant includes automated product transport and storage, right from the start of production to their preparation for dispatch. A system comprising several complementary solutions was installed for this purpose. The first element is a pallet conveyor, which transports palletised goods from the production lines to the warehouse. Only pallets with correct dimensions are stored in the high rack warehouse: “Inspected pallets that meet this requirement are picked up at the supply point by automated STILL FM-X iGo reach trucks. The automated guided vehicles (AGVs) choose optimal routes and transport the load safely to the shelving system,” explains Dominik Jasiok, Advanced Applications Manager at STILL Poland. He adds: “The shelving system we have installed at the Lajkonik site has a total of 7,145 pallet bays. The highest shelves are 8,100 mm high. Our warehouse management system features a WMS module and assigns the appropriate storage location.”

Maximum flexibility

A hybrid battery charging system for the automated trucks was implemented at the plant. If the trucks have no orders, they drive independently to one of four interim charging stations, where they can automatically recharge their batteries. During periods when workload is high, the STILL FM-X iGo trucks can also drive into the battery exchange room to have their batteries changed manually. An order system tailored to the customer’s needs was therefore one of the solutions installed at the site. The solution provides an intuitive interface that enables orders to be assigned to automated trucks. In this way, AGV operation can be adapted to changing situations and flexibility can be increased.

Synergies between automated and manual trucks are also possible when loading HGVs: the orders for pallets awaiting dispatch are received by the SAP system, the AGVs then pick up the corresponding pallets from the shelves and stack them on the correct ramp in the dispatch area in block form. From this point, the HGVs are loaded manually. The automated trucks are equipped with a safety system featuring laser scanners, enabling them to work seamlessly even in mixed operation and always guaranteeing the highest levels of safety.

Conclusion: future-proof and cost-effective solution

“From our point of view, the solution strikes the perfect balance between automatisation and manual transport. Thanks to the hybrid charging concept, we can carry out interim charging or completely change the battery as required. In addition, we can assign the trucks to specific zones according to the current operational process,” says Paweł Spyrka, Warehouse Manager at Lajkonik Snacks. To sum up, he says: “The implemented solution has fully met our expectations. The high shelving allows us to use our existing storage space efficiently, the automated storage process is reliable and the automated trucks are ideally suited for continuous operation. This means warehouse capacity can be increased without the need for more staff. In the near future, we are planning a further collaboration with STILL to automate our company’s intralogistics processes.”