Grocery Logistics

Centralized Distribution Center Improves Nordfrost’s Cold Chain Logistics

Herne, Germany

Automated warehouse systems

Nordfrost Group is a global specialist in third-party freezer logistics located in Germany. In 2018, Nordfrost invested in a centralized distribution center in western Germany to improve its cold chain logistics. The newly constructed central hub utilizes automated warehouse systems designed for high picking capacity and quality. Several thousand packaging units per hour can be processed in the distribution center in a largely automated way.

Optimizing Lean Material Flow

Goods Receipt Area and Storage

Pallets from the goods receipt area are stored in a high-bay pallet warehouse with 42,000 frozen storage locations. Non-mixed product lines are also loaded and stored temporarily in the high-bay pallet warehouse or transported directly to the depalletizing area.

Overview of the distribution center of grocery specialist Nordfrost

Depalletizing and Tray Loading

Once goods are needed for replenishment and fulfillment, a pallet comes down from the high-bay warehouse to an area where it is depalletized by two Splitex depalletizing robots or at manual workstations, depending on the product. Depalletized products are temporarily stored on trays in the shuttle warehouse, which contains approximately 66,000 storage locations at -24°C.

Order Picking and Palletizing

After receiving customer orders, the products are retrieved and transported from the shuttle system sequentially to workstations where the customer pallets are located. After palletizing, the pallet is automatically wrapped and transported directly to the outbound area or temporarily stored in the high-bay warehouse.

Shipping

Shipping labels are affixed to the pallets in the outbound area and are made available for shipping on nine destination conveyor belts.

Two TGW Logistics Stingray shuttles with blue covers in an aisle using trays for storage

Freezer Shuttle Technology

At Nordfrost, our Stingray shuttles are set at -24°C. TGW Logistics developed this technology with freezer capabilities in mind. Thanks to the compact design and efficient use of space in the shuttle warehouse, Nordfrost achieves high storage density, leading to much lower energy costs for warehouse cooling and ultimately reducing their Total Cost of Ownership.

Are you looking for ways to centralize your cold chain network and enhance your warehouse operations? TGW Logistics can implement automation for your distribution center to suit your needs like we did for Nordfrost Group.

Want to learn how TGW Logistics can help your operation?