automated logistics Archives

New Stockholm automated logistics facility

Posted on 11 August, 202125 July, 2025 by David Priestman

Mathem is growing at a fast pace together with the food retail e-commerce industry in the Nordic countries. The establishment of a new logistics facility in Larsboda, south of Stockholm, is an important piece of the puzzle for continued expansion. An equally important aspect is the specially designed automation solution from SSI Schaefer.

Mathem was established in 2007 as an online grocery store and has seen since a huge expansion with more and more returning customers. Currently the operations are conducted in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö and their surrounding areas.

With a constantly evolving and changing customer offering, a high degree of flexibility is a must. The solution must also meet customers’ demands for increased and faster availability, which has been one of the major driving forces during the project. SSI Schaefer was selected because of its flexibility and adaptivity to Mathem’s business needs and productivity goals.

“E-commerce for food retail is an exciting industry where we have seen high growth rates all over the world, especially during the last year. Mathem is a very important project for us at SSI Schaefer. This clearly shows that we are at the forefront of efficiencies in the market segment that we see continuing to grow. It is exciting to be able to contribute to and support Mathem in achieving its goals,” says Hans Ekström, Solution Design Manager Automation at SSI Schaefer.

With Mathem’s project, SSI Schaefer position itself even stronger in e-commerce for groceries. An area that places higher demands on automation solutions than typical e-commerce in retail due to larger orders and higher capacity. SSI Schaefer already has extensive experience in automation for food retail with several large projects in the Nordic countries. For example, the largest automation solution in Europe for Coop and automation with a strong sustainability focus for ASKO.

“I am glad that the deal is finally through. In a short time, and in close collaboration with SSI Schaefer, we have found a solution that provides the conditions to continue our fantastic growth journey and to achieve our set profitability goals. Every day, tens of thousands of items, in any combination, must be picked and delivered to our customers as quickly as possible. The solution will also offer our logistics employees in Sweden the best working environment! We have come a long way and made many important decisions and now the real work begins to achieve this,” comments Henrik Peitz, COO at Mathem.

The installation will begin this autumn and the goal is to release the new facilities into operation during the second half of 2022.

Cimcorp Delivers Robotic Order Picking for US Warehouse Facility

Posted on 18 November, 202029 July, 2025 by David Priestman

Cimcorp, a manufacturer and integrator of turnkey robotic order fulfillment and tire-handling solutions, announces it has helped Midwest convenience store chain Kwik Trip automate product handling and order fulfillment in its La Crosse, Wisconsin baking facility’s warehouse. Within the 87,000-square-foot warehouse, Cimcorp designed a space-saving, high-density layout and custom automated solution centered around its MultiPick robotic order picking system. The solution is able to rapidly manage 80,000 trays of fast-moving bakery products and process orders for 53,000 outbound trays to over 700 Kwik Trip stores each day.

The warehouse is part of a 200,000-square-foot baking facility opened by Kwik Trip in the fall of 2018 in response to growing demand for its self-produced baked goods—namely bread and buns. With the goal of producing and distributing four times the volume of output of its previous baking facility, Kwik Trip wanted to automate as much of its operations as possible. Today, the state-of-the art facility features various automated systems that handle the majority of production, packaging, warehousing and outbound distribution in a well-orchestrated, fully integrated fashion.

Eric Fonstad, Facility Director – Bread/Bun Plant, Kwik Trip, said, “The warehouse is one of the most critical points in the La Crosse facility’s end-to-end process, as the bread and buns that come in from production and packaging are held for no more than 48 hours before being sent to our stores. From receiving to storage, through picking and dispatch—these products have to flow seamlessly and quickly to guarantee their maximum freshness for our customers. Cimcorp’s automation is central to enabling this efficient product movement and is therefore pivotal to our bakery business. Cimcorp worked closely with us to develop an ideal solution that would make optimal use of our warehouse space and meet our present and future business needs.”

Notably, when orders come in from Kwik Trip’s stores, the data is transferred to Cimcorp’s Warehouse Control System (WCS), which then controls and directs the MultiPick to pick the orders based on store and route. The MultiPick operates from overhead and retrieves the required trays of products from stacks up to 20 high across the warehouse floor. Computer control ensures that the orders are picked with 100-percent accuracy and that Kwik Trip follows a first-in-first-out (FIFO) inventory management model. By automating, Kwik Trip has also eliminated the ergonomic risks of manual handling—enhancing workplace safety for all warehouse employees—and improved its surge capacity.

Derek Rickard, Director of Sales, Cimcorp, said, “Surges are a common challenge in bakery distribution—where warehouse managers and employees must keep products efficiently moving out the door amid spikes in order volume. These are often seen seasonally but can also occur due to other external market factors. For instance, at the onset of COVID-19, Kwik Trip saw demand nearly triple in a single week. But thanks to the rapid handling and adaptability of our MultiPick system, the La Crosse facility was able to maintain the same product flow and level of order accuracy as its normal daily operation. From the beginning, it was important that our solution offer such flexibility, as well as scalability, to meet Kwik Trip’s warehousing needs as the company sets its sights on continued growth ahead.”

Earlier this year Cimcorp announced they were working with Spanish grocery retailer, Alimerka to automate the distribution of fresh produce.

Greater Flexibility, Safety and Productivity: Fully-automatic

Posted on 16 November, 202025 July, 2025 by David Priestman

They never get sick, make no mistakes and work tirelessly around the clock: Automated industrial trucks offer a wide range of clear advantages.

Linde Material Handling has updated its comprehensive product range wih the second-generation Linde R-MATIC reach truck and an additional Linde L-MATIC HD model. The experience Linde has gained from past projects involving over 50 vehicles has gone into the further development of its reach trucks. The resulting performance characteristics ensure greater productivity, safety and flexibility.

Pallet warehouses play a central role as material buffers both in industrial manufacturing processes and in distribution centers. Storage and retrieval operations in high-bay racking systems are usually standardized processes entailing a high degree of repetition. As a rule, the narrower the distances between the rows of shelves and the more precise the positioning of the individual pallets, the more efficient the warehouse. This is exactly what makes pallet storage systems the ideal field of application for automated equipment such as the Linde R-MATIC reach truck and the Linde L-MATIC HD pallet stacker.

The new Linde trucks can work with maximum precision even in the tightest of spaces: With a length of 2,520 millimeters and a width of 1,565 millimeters, the Linde R-MATIC (1.6-ton load capacity) is the only automated hybrid reach truck on the EMEA-market that can maneuver in aisles as narrow as 2.90 meters. Software-controlled, the vehicle can store pallets with extremely high accuracy even at lifting heights of more than eleven meters. “The design, maneuverability, load handling and precision of these automated industrial trucks are decisive for the performance of the overall system,” says Alexandra Mertel, Product Manager Automation & Intralogistics Solutions at Linde Material Handling: “These criteria are crucial for enabling the pallets to be placed precisely at the intended storage locations and for pick-and-drop cycles to be improved.”

With the help of an infrastructure-free laser navigation system, the trucks dynamically steer their way through the warehouse, receiving transport orders directly from the warehouse management system via the central control unit.

The trucks receive a noticeable productivity boost from the auto-calibrating 3D camera that is equipped with a new software generation. Not only does this camera recognize the dimensions of the pallet markedly better, it can also see deeper into the pallet, which makes picking up the pallet and placing it down much more precise – whether on the ground, on roller conveyors or on the shelves. At the same time, the automated vehicles are able to transport a greater variety of pallets. This is ensured by relative image recognition algorithms developed exclusively for Linde Material Handling that have been validated in extensive tests.

As is standard practice at Linde Material Handling, the automated trucks meet the highest safety requirements. Four scanners are integrated into the vehicle at floor level, producing a 360-degree safety field around the vehicle and constantly screening for obstacles. The standard equipment also includes additional emergency stop switches, the well-known Linde Blue Spot and the Dynamic Mast Control system, which provides valuable assistance at great lifting heights. Optionally available equipment includes a sensor that detects overhanging loads and a second, higher-positioned 3D camera that can generate time savings in load handling.

The two Linde L-MATIC HD models with 1.6- and 2.0-ton load capacity feature all around safety equipment as well, including side bumpers, standard and optional scanners, emergency stop switches and optical and acoustic warning systems. Here too, load detection is via the innovative 3D camera.

Reach trucks and pallet stackers are designed as a hybrid solution, allowing the operator to take control of the truck at any time and switch to manual mode. Another new feature is the autonomous charging ability. Equipped with fast-charging batteries, the automated industrial trucks drive to the charging station independently for recharging.

“In addition to the appropriate technology, a provider’s consulting expertise also plays a decisive role in automation projects,” says Product Manager Alexandra Mertel from Linde Material Handling. In order to find a suitable solution for a particular customer, numerous parameters must be checked during the planning stage. “We first need to completely understand the customer’s expectations. Only then can the system be developed and the trucks configured in detail.” Here, specialists from Linde Material Handling work closely with different departments on the customer side (e.g. Purchasing, Logistics, Engineering). “For this purpose, we have set up our own implementation team to ensure the reliable commissioning of the vehicles. This enables us to provide comprehensive support to our customers,” emphasizes Mertel.

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