Recycled corrugated paper manufacturer Saica now has an automated vertical warehouse at its new Scottish corrugated packaging plant in Livingston. The building, which began construction in 2020, brings together the group's former sites in Edinburgh and Milngavie, and required an investment of over £50 million (?58 million).
Installed by Spain's Duro Felguera, this new warehouse belonging to the group's dedicated corrugated division, Saica Pack, boasts impressive dimensions: shelving rises to a height of 21 m and extends over 50 m in length and 20 m in width. The system is spread over eight levels, with two aisles. In each of these aisles operates a stacker crane, a robot that transports loads and raises them to the required height.
This Warehouse Management System (WMS), custom-developed for Saica Pack, enables two different orders to be managed per racking cell," emphasizes Duro Felguera. This means greater versatility and optimized use of storage space, even for the increasingly common low-volume orders.
The facility, which was successfully set up despite a difficult context, such as the covid epidemic and Brexit, is one of the most modern warehouses and the only one dedicated to corrugated board in the UK, according to the paper group, which posts sales of 4,394 million euros.
