FONTERRA KAURI

• Vehicles: Two Linde H50 LPG forklifts
  
• Vehicle capacity: 5 tonnes
  
• Load: Whole Milk Powder, Skim Milk Powder, Nutritional Powders, stretch wrapped and unwrapped 25kg bags / 700kg bags, single & double bulk bins, empty pallet stacking
  
• Operations: 3 production lines, stretch wrap in-feed and out-feed conveyors, warehouse accumulation
  
• Storage type: Block stacks in deep rows

Fonterra's Kauri installation produces over 80,000 tonnes of milk powder annually, servicing a catchment area from Auckland to Cape Reinga. Raw milk is processed into a wide variety of powder and nutritional products, packed into bags and bins on container wide pallets, and stored in a drystore warehouse until dispatched via trucks.

Fonterra sought an automation solution which could deal with complex warehouse movements for a wide variety of products, while remaining flexible enough to handle seasonal variations in production.

INRO presented an approach which automated Fonterra's current fleet of Linde 5.0 tonne LPG forklifts to handle all product types and consumable movements completely autonomously. In addition INRO automated forklifts interface with the factory automation system to replenish pallets and slipsheets as required.

INRO automation in Kauri currently handles over 300 tonnes of production a day; including different product types in multiple formats from 3 separate production lines.

To view the full case study, click on the pdf link here.
Footage of the INRO automated forklifts operating in Kauri can be seen on our profile video.