10/09/07 Shell refines its warehousing with Autostore.
Royal Dutch/Shell Group - one of the world's leading energy companies - is using Autostore to handle all product identification, tracking, storage, replenishment and shipment operations at the Shell Lubricants Centre (SLC) in Stanlow, Cheshire.
Running a Just-In-Time (JIT) operation for Shell, Autostore sits at the heart of this complex supply chain, handling over 1,900 stock keeping units (SKUs) across an annual production of over 150,000 tonnes of lubricant products.
Located next to one of the largest refineries in europe, the SLC operates a five stage process that covers product blending, packaging, warehousing, allocation and delivery that works on a two-shift system with all elements geared to respond to real-time fluctuations in customer demand. The challenge was to move this well-established, highly-automated and fast-moving site seamlessly from a legacy management system onto a future-proofed, next generation platform able to last a minimum 10 years without major upgrade.
Autostore has been easily integrated with Shell's existing and planned scheduling as well as its ERP systems.
A spokesman for shell said: "We had reached the performance limits of the existing system and we needed a replacement that not only could cope with today's production levels but one that could also do it with a simplified, single point of integration for all disparate on-site systems - and then still be robust enough to soak up very high picking volumes and extensive planned year-on-year increases in output. It was clear that Autostore, with its major installation track record, was the only system on the market that had the 'industrial strength' and levels of functionality required to get the job done."
The Shell SLC Autostore implementation interfaces directly with the plant administration system and ERP system, plus connects to all on-site mechanical handling equipment (MHE) and fork lift trucks via radio data terminals (RDTs) running across a wireless LAN.
It gives the SLC warehouse management team a real-time view of SKU levels, covering their past and present positions, planned future movement and picking on-the-fly. for business management, Autostore gives an instant picture of held assets plus all relevant data on stock coming in from the manufacturing areas of the refinery as well as for outbound finsihed goods.
Shell has experienced high-impact business benefits as a result of adopting Autostore. Concludes the SLC spokesman: "Picking, in both speed and accuracy, is now greatly improved and means we can handle a higher order volume within a framework of true JIT. Staff reductions, through natural wastage and redeployment, have also been realised thanks to Autostore. These benefits are combined with a markedly superior ratio of orders that are right first time and this means lower delivery costs and improved customer service that drop straight to our bottom line."
User acceptance has been 100 per cent and within two days of switching over from the legacy system to full-time Autostore, the SLC handled one of its larget ever days with 260 tonnes of product handled for domestic delivery alone.
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For more information, please email Julian Wright.