E
stablished in 1953 in Plymouth, Wisconsin,
Sargento Foods Inc. (Sargento) is a food
manufacturer most famously known for
its natural cheeses. Although it is recognized for
primarily packaging cheese and cheese products,
the company also manufactures sauces and snack
foods for grocers at the retail level and for corporate
clients, such as restaurants and other food manufac-
tures.
The company has continued to make waves in the
food industry over the years for its innovation in
pre-sliced cheese, vacuum packaging, re-sealable
packaging, and production of shredded cheese and
shredded cheese blends.
CHALLENGE
As demand continued to increase, warehouse space
became scarcer and the company began searching
for a solution that would enable it to increase the
storage capacity of its current facility to support the
growth in its distribution services. The team first
determined important data points that would help
them to select a warehouse solution, including the
size of the warehouse, how much space was utilized
with the traditional picking system and how much
more capacity would be needed to continue growth
at the current rate for a number of years.
To work well for Sargento, the solution needed to
support both layer picking and full pallet picking,
since nearly 60 percent of the warehouse operations
revolve around these types of picking. The solution
also needed to accommodate the ware-
house activities during implementation,
and ensure that the warehouse would be
able to continue filling orders without a
gap in throughput.
easy to support, operate and maintain. Together,
they looked at various design solutions for the facil-
ity using Westfalia’s high-density automated storage
and retrieval system (AS/RS) and integrated layer
picking system. The solution includes Westfalia’s
Savana.NET® Warehouse Execution System (WES)
to optimize order fulfillment from picking products
to delivering them to the order staging area.
“With the warehouse execution system, Westfalia
provides a complete solution that automates and
controls order handling within the distribution cen-
ter,” said Bruce Wisnefske, director of engineering
services, Sargento.
Since the project included retrofitting Sargento’s
current facility, Westfalia installed the system in six
different phases, allowing the warehouse to main-
tain operations and Sargento to meet its goal of not
under delivering to customers.
RESULTS
With the addition of Westfalia’s automation solu-
tion, Sargento has increased the storage density
of its warehouse and extend the life of the current
distribution center by up to a decade.
“Westfalia’s automation solution has provided us
with the warehouse capacity to sustain our long-
term growth,” said Matt Schaub, shipping and
receiving manager, Sargento.
SOLUTION
Sargento looked to Westfalia Technolo-
gies, Inc. to help it increase storage density
and improve outbound fulfillment using
warehouse automation. Westfalia collabo-
rated with Sargento’s engineering firm to
develop a streamlined solution that was
www.WestfaliaUSA.com
The Satellite Review
27