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Autostore is the UK's leading terminal operating system (TOS) and operates the TCT1 and TCT2 container facilities at PD Teesport. A substantial new warehousing facility - No.5 shed - has been developed by PD Teesport to handle de-vanned container-based cargo. Using the Autostore warehouse management system (WMS) variant, No.5 Shed can handle the transhipment of all types of cargo and specialises in the mass importation of newsprint reels. Around 33,000kg arrives at the terminal each week, supplying many of the UK's newspaper groups with the paper they need.
No.5 Shed at PD Teesport covers 52,000m2 and is run by three full-time staff with all cargo movements governed by Autostore. Designed as a general-purpose warehouse, No.5 Shed specialises in handling imported newsprint from the Volga region of Russia and Syktyvkar in Sweden. The newsprint arrives in containers by ship, wrapped on giant reels up to two and a half metres thick and weighing up to 2,000 kilos each. Fully loaded, each container weighs around 35 tonnes and carries an average of 20 newsprint reels and No.5 Shed processes an average of 30 container loads per week.
Variety
There are also a number of different types of paper stock needed for different printing applications. The reels cover a variety of GSM - grammes per square metre - weightings and the various types of stock must be stored separately and in a way that allows easy access. Whilst big and heavy, newsprint reels contain delicate product and have to be moved gently to prevent damage. This creates an additional pressure on warehouse management as any reels that have been damaged during shipment have to be separated from viable stock and repaired on-site. No.5 Shed personnel remove any torn layers of paper from the reel and rewrap' it before adding it back into the pool of available stock. At any given time, PDT needs to know how many reels are out of action because of this, where they are stored and when they are to be returned to the main warehouse stock.
A JIT-based distribution centre in its own right, the general purpose No.5 Shed represents an important new business opportunity for PDT. Containers are moved across to No.5 Shed from the TCT where they are de-vanned, stored, prepared and then shipped out by road out in response to customer demand. Man-riding 'clamp' trucks fitted with radio data terminals (RDT) lift the reels from each container, scanning the IFRA barcode that is the standard barcode type for newsprint.
Planning
Once Autostore accepts the barcode, the clamp truck moves the reel to the allocated section of the warehouse and a two-digit check-code is applied to ensure that the right reel goes in the right place. It is at this time that any reels damaged in transit are moved aside for re-wrapping. Autostore ensures that all reel stock is positioned correctly and gives the warehouse operators total, real-time visibility of which GSM reels are where, how many, for which customer and at which production location they're intended for.
Autostore also manages all reel dispatch. Rather than prepare each load as the receiving wagon arrives, it releases the loads in advance and the clamp trucks move the reels to the correct marshalling lane. Typically, a customer order will cover more than one delivery location: automating this process speeds up loading and allows the warehouse to process each delivery order faster and more efficiently.
A PD Teesport spokesman comments: "We run a fully failsafe warehouse management operation with Autostore. Primary and mirrored secondary servers host the application and five LAN terminals running Windows look after day-to-day operation: two terminals are in the warehouse and a further three for administration and management reporting.
"The benefits of Autostore are four-fold for us: it's easy to use; the speed with which we can now bring in stock; the ease with which we can manage it once in the warehouse and again, the speed with which we can dispatch the reels around the country. They combine to produce an operation where we know where everything is, in real-time, where it's come from, plus when and where it's going. This also improves our customer service: at the click of a mouse, Autostore can answer just about any question we may get from a customer as regards stock availability, plus we can advise them immediately of damaged reels that might need replacing on the next shipment.
"Because we know have a precise, real-time picture of stock and planned movements, we can manage our current and planned capacity with much greater finesse. This makes us more efficient and enables us to make more profitable use of the space we have without needing to expand it."
Aside from the warehousing operation at No.5 Shed, Autostore also operates the TCT1 and TCT2 container terminals, an additional warehouse and PDT's entire resource management system - all combining to produce a truly integrated port management system for PD Teesport.