Client

Foster’s Group is a premium multi-beverage company delivering a total portfolio of beer, wine, spirits, cider and non-alcohol beverage. Foster’s Group is headquartered in Australia.

Project

Foster’s Wine Estates is the worldwide leader in the premium wine segment and owns 20 wineries worldwide with a total vineyard holding of more than 16,000 hectares. One of these is Wolf Blass, a renowned brand in Australian winegrowing which has been producing some of Australia's very best wines for over 30 years, receiving over 3,000 awards at international wine shows since 1966. Swisslog has set up a distribution center at the new Wolf Blass facility in South Australia’s, Barossa Valley.

Swisslog turned over the first portion of the new distribution center for Foster’s Wine Estates to the customer in 2005. The new distribution center for servicing predominantly international markets was completed. The first phase of the project comprises 9,792 pallet locations with four 12-meter stacker cranes and accompanying conveyor equipment and the standard software package AutomationManager Version 5, which links the warehouse with the three new high-speed bottling systems on the Wolf Blass Vineyard. In the meantime, an additional expansion level has been implemented which became necessary following the successful acquisition by the Foster’s Group of Southcorp Wines. By mid-2006, another 12,240 pallet locations with five automatic stacker cranes have be established, which are equipped with additional conveyor equipment for the warehouse and distribution center.

Solution

Swisslog has delivered the overall warehouse project in two stages. The total warehouse and distribution facility consists of:

• Goods receiving area for the identification and checking of external goods
• Automated link to bottling systems
• Bulk storage automated warehouse
• Automated replenishment to manual picking area
• Automated transport to despatch facilities
• Material flow control system and connection to the Foster’s WMS system

Benefit

Thanks to Swisslog, the entire process, from receiving goods out of production to warehousing and consignment all the way to shipping, is being automated. The primary goal of the project was to fully utilize the customer’s automation potential. The entire costs of the logistics operations are thereby reduced to an optimal level, while at the same time workplace safety is increased. The latter is achieved in that there are significantly fewer interactions between the employees and the material flow equipment in the facility.

Swisslog Delivery

• System design, planning, simulation, detailed engineering and integration
• Automated warehouse (22,000 pallets, 9 stacker cranes) and conveyor system
• Swisslog Control Systems for cranes and conveyor system
• Swisslog’s standard material flow control software AutomationManagertm and standard user interface SPOC