Leading extruder of window and door systems VEKA plc has completed work on an advanced Distribution and Logistics Centre, to more than double the size of its Burnley, Lancashire site to 400,000 sq. ft. The development represents an investment in the UK operation of £9.5 million.

The facility has been built to a specification developed by VEKA to raise distribution speed, accuracy and quality to new standards for the glazing industry, and to keep pace with 35% growth in the last three years, and a similar increase in business anticipated by 2006, and makes VEKA’s Burnley site the second largest in the Group. All of the company’s warehousing and distribution operations are now housed on a single site, though with manufacturing and logistics located in separate buildings. Around 100 additional jobs will eventually be created by the project, when it comes on stream fully early in 2005 following extensive trialling.

The VEKA Distribution and Logistics Centre has been designed and built to incorporate the latest state-of-the-art systems, and is regarded as one of the most advanced anywhere in the UK. Fully computerised, product is moved from the manufacturing facility to the Distribution Centre by a fully automated monorail conveyor between the two buildings.

3000 profile stillages may be stored in the high bay facility of the Distribution Centre, with a total site capacity of no less than 6000 stillages. Two cranes automatically load the stillages, centrally controlled by VEKA’s central SAP management system, offering a dramatic increase in accuracy and speed whilst also further reducing the risk of damage to product during loading.

The rules of logistics are re-written by the new VEKA facility; using conventional methods operators will walk around selecting product and bring it back to the picking area, operating at a speed dictated by them. The new system delivers stillages to any one of four pick stations, at a speed of one per crane every 75 seconds. Thus the system dictates the speed of the process, allowing greater efficiency, but also dramatically more efficient planning, order tracking and forecasting. Up to three articulated vehicles may be loaded simultaneously, and under cover, further optimising the system and protecting product from the elements.

Source

Glass Age