Protective packaging solution supports facility consolidation

Stanley Black & Decker’s Belgian distribution center has gradually taken over all shipping capacities for customers in Benelux, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia. Since 2012, a new protective packaging system has supported a doubling of throughput.

The company’s extensive range of tools are stored at the distribution center and dispatched to DIY stores and retailers, as well as logistics service providers and regional distribution centers. Since the summer of 2014, the facility has processed an average of 18,000 shipments per day. About 90% of the shipments are prepared with the new protective packaging air cushions (Storopack, storopack.us).

Installed in 2012, each of the four in-line workstations is equipped with a silo and a machine that fills 10 meters of air cushions per minute and automatically tops off the silo. Workers remove the air cushions and add them to the pre-packed products in the shipping package. They can also lower the system to replace rolls of air cushion stock. Workers complete a shipment in around 15 seconds.

The throughput of the workstations has increased from an initial 9,000 shipments per day (10,800 at increased capacity utilization) to today’s figure of around 16,200 shipments per day (as high as 19,800 at increased capacity utilization).
“We have always achieved our productivity targets for protective packaging,” says Ludo Lantmeeters, logistics and facilities sourcing manager at Stanley Black & Decker.