In pursuit of good taste Part IV: Sweet treats for Easter

When the Easter Bunny hides its annual Easter nests in gardens and homes, two important items should never be missing: the finest chocolate eggs and traditional marzipan balls. They not only light up children’s eyes, but also enchant adults’ taste buds. In the Easter edition of our series “In pursuit of good taste,” we therefore take a culinary trip to Belgium and Italy and take a look at the automated intralogistics behind the sweet treats.

Only the very best ingredients, the highest quality standards, refinement with great attention to detail — this is the philosophy behind the culinary delights for the brands of Kim’s Chocolates, a Belgian chocolate manufacturer. And the company’s automated warehouses also function on these principles: Here, the automation specialist Dematic, in cooperation with the storage system manufacturer Dambach, has designed a modern storage and production environment that meets the special requirements of the high-quality products. After all, when blending the various ingredients, processes must interact seamlessly and efficiently so that the valuable cocoa beans can become perfectly shaped and temptingly filled chocolates, whole chocolate bars, or even Easter eggs and bunnies in appealing packages.

AGVs and the chocolate factory

For this purpose, the products largely move from one step to the next via conveyor belts. However, there are also three Dematic AGVs on the move in the warehouse. They transport newly delivered packaging material from the incoming goods area to the packaging warehouse, from there to the production area and vice versa, or finished packaged products to the outgoing goods warehouse. The AGVs play a vital supporting role in assembling the praline boxes that are extremely popular at Easter: After the fine confiserie products have finished coming off the production line, they are transported by the AGVs by type in large containers from production to the confectionery, where they are sorted into the various boxes in different assemblies. Once the boxes are ready, they are taken to one of the numerous warehouses. There is room for around 6,000 pallets on which the sweet delicacies are stacked — making chocolate dreams come true, and not just at Easter.

Perfect automation for maximum almond enjoyment

Those who prefer to snack on marzipan at Easter will find what they are looking for in northern Italy at the Alfrus company. Here, tons of almonds in all shapes, colors and versions come off the production line, because Alfrus processes them at its sites in Coseano and Nichelino into the finest marzipan, along with various other almond products. This requires different work steps — and here, too, automation will soon help to achieve confectionary perfection thanks to installations by intralogistics specialist Linde Material Handling.

In the two warehouses areas designed by Linde Material Handling — a raw materials warehouse and a finished goods warehouse — a precisely coordinated system of smart shuttles is currently being installed. These will handle storage and retrieval from the racks, which are designed with multiple depths for optimum utilization.  In the new system, vertical conveyors transport the shuttles and pallets to the right level, and automatic conveyors take care of transporting the almonds from the source to the destination — namely the next processing step. In the raw materials warehouse, the almonds suitable for the respective orders (as determined by the Warehouse Management System software) are transported in each case to the machines for the blanching, roasting, grinding or many other steps. Thus, these almonds are usually first cleaned and then transformed into basic products for other companies. The almonds for production of the in-house marzipan follows a similar process. The finished products are finally packed in cartons or packages onto a pallet — automatically. After palletizing, an automatic wrapping system ensures that the load is secured and AGVs transport the loaded pallets to the finished goods warehouse, which is also automated.

What is special about this second warehouse is that the planning not only includes specific temperature ranges, but also oxygen reduction throughout the building. A special system reduces the oxygen content of the air to a level of around 16 percent — this not only keeps the almond products fresh for much longer, but also reduces the risk of fire in the warehouse to almost zero. The automated systems for handling these delicate goods are unaffected by the changed environment and continue to create sweet moments of enjoyment well beyond Italy.