Automation replaces manual picking: Gerolsteiner has opted for the automated solution from EOL Packaging Experts to assemble individualised mixed pallets of PET six-packs.
For Gerolsteiner Brunnen GmbH, the Sprudel, Medium and Naturell varieties in 1.5 and 0.75 litre PET bottles as foil-wrapped six-packs are an important growth driver. The trade orders increasingly individualised mixed pallets instead of single-variety pallets. Before the new automated picking system for film-wrapped PET six-packs was commissioned, mixed pallets were configured manually with considerable effort.
Marco Diederichs, Technical Planning Coordinator at Gerolsteiner, explains: „The volume planned for the following years would simply no longer have been possible with a reasonable amount of work due to the success.“ So a Automated solution with performance reserves was sought. BMS, part of the EOL Packaging Experts group of companies, was chosen partly due to four successfully realised joint projects. Diederichs: „The quality is right, as is the service, and we are creating important synergies in the provision of spare parts.“
Digital project management as a success factor
Smooth commissioning was ensured by modern tools such as the cloud-based project management system LOP 4.0 and the Virtual commissioning. The latter simulates the real behaviour of the control technology in advance and enables the system to be ramped up quickly.
Source: EOL
