Tradition meets material handling innovation in Europe
Fulfillment goes lights-out in Parma, Italy, where Italian food company Barilla is on the leading edge of robotic automation and sustainable distribution.
Victoria Kickham, an editor at large for Supply Chain Quarterly, started her career as a newspaper reporter in the Boston area before moving into B2B journalism. She has covered manufacturing, distribution and supply chain issues for a variety of publications in the industrial and electronics sectors, and now writes about everything from forklift batteries to omnichannel business trends for Supply Chain Quarterly's sister publication, DC Velocity.
Italian food companyBarilla is steeped in history, but company leaders are focused on the future when it comes to managing its material handling operations. The 144-year-old maker of pasta, sauces, breads, and more embarked on a supply chain transformation in 2012 that has produced a state-of-the-art distribution center in Parma, Italy, featuring integrated robotics systems and a 24/7 lights-out operation—a showcase of how automated material handling systems can improve operations and contribute to a more sustainable distribution and supply chain network.
“Barilla has always been committed to environmental and social sustainability. A sustainable food supply chain can be achieved only by looking at the entire supply chain in its overall dimension and [the] integration between the individual steps,” says Alessandro Spadini, plant director for Barilla’s headquarters and flagship production facility in Parma, which houses the DC. “An integrated factory, therefore, has a meaning that goes beyond the efficiency of the factory but is rather, a fundamental element [in making] the supply chain more sustainable.”
The 430,000-square-foot fully automated distribution center is equipped with more than 100 laser-guided vehicles and 41 robotic systems—including high-density automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), palletizers, labelers, and stretch wrappers—and handles 320,000 tons of pasta per year. Designed, manufactured, and installed by Italy-based automation solutions provider E80 Group, the facility’s flexible automated systems not only streamline throughput and allow for volume fluctuation through the plant but also are energy-efficient, contributing to Barilla’s overall environmental goals.
“The transformation of the Parma plant was a fundamental step on the path that we have undertaken, together with E80 Group, to develop flexible systems capable of significantly … improving how we work and distribute,” Spadini adds. “This important project is consistent with the commitment that our group has [made] to contribute significantly to achieving theUnited Nations Sustainable Development Goals, along with the help of theBarilla Center for Food and Nutrition Foundation, which studies food in its environmental, social, and economic dimensions. We keep working together to [deliver on our] claim: Good for you, good for the planet.”
INTEGRATED AND ENERGY-EFFICIENT
Spadini says flexibility of design was the key to developing a DC that would address Barilla’s productivity and sustainability goals. A DC filled with rigid conveyor systems, for example, simply wouldn’t work.
“Any distribution system that is not sufficiently flexible, that is based on a rigid scheme, sooner or later, will become an issue,” according to Spadini. “The solution in trying to separate the various distribution processes—like high-density storage, transport of pallets, palletizing, stretch wrapping, and staging pallets at loading docks for shipping—comes from these processes ideally having flexible, adaptable solutions.”
With that in mind, E80 Group designed an integrated system that includes laser-guided vehicles (LGVs), robotic palletizers, and other end-of-line robotic systems that are adaptable and energy-efficient. The use of LGVs was an important part of the equation.
“One of the main reasons [for our decision] to move forward with this renovation of Parma’s distribution [center] was the desire to get away from conveyors and adopt laser-guided vehicles for pallet transport within the facility,” Spadini explains. “Traditional conveying systems are sized for production peaks and [are] not flexible enough to manage variations in throughput, in terms of both flow and volume. Therefore, pallet conveyor systems are typically highly inefficient.”
The Parma DC uses three main types of LGVs: those that carry a single pallet, those that carry two pallets at a time, and LGVs that carry four pallets at a time. The LGVs interact with floor-positioned pallets and AS/RS induction stations, picking up and dropping off pallets between the various stations throughout the facility: receiving, palletizing, stretch wrapping, labeling, finished-goods warehousing, and staging for shipping.
The LGVs are also a driving force for energy efficiency. The battery-powered vehicles use the latest in lithium-ion battery technology, according to both companies, and offer low toxicity and more consistent performance—the constant discharge voltage of the battery allows it to deliver virtually full power until it is discharged, for instance, reducing downtime and improving performance. The batteries also utilize wireless induction charging, with charging stations placed directly in the production area, which helps reduce vehicle travel in the facility, among other advantages. All told, the battery-powered vehicles have helped Barilla reduce energy consumption in the DC by more than 30% compared with a more traditional, conveyor-based system, Spadini says.
Barilla’s use of high-density storage within the facility helps with overall energy-reduction strategies as well. By storing more product within the DC, Barilla has eliminated about 3,000 truck trips per year to outside warehouses it previously used for storage, a strategy that has lowered carbon dioxide emissions and cut 40% of its lighting and 20% of its heating costs, Spadini says.
“These factors contribute to Barilla’s initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint,” he adds.
SUSTAINABLE AND SELF-SUFFICIENT
Barilla’s supply chain transformation is producing results: Since 2010, its Parma-based business (which includes manufacturing as well as the DC and is purportedly the largest pasta-producing plant in the world) has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 31% and cut its water consumption per ton of finished product by 23%. On top of that, it now purchases 64% of its electricity from renewable sources.
The facility’s “lights out” operation has been a prime contributor to those milestones. Receipt of products from manufacturing through staging of palletized units for shipping is completely automated. The facility’s high-density warehouse uses E80 Group’s AS/RS Store system, which uses stacker cranes equipped with automatic product-handling devices for double-deep storage. Six stacker cranes support 47,000 pallet locations, and there are an additional 50,000 pallet locations that allow drive-in LGV access. Palletizing is automated, as are stretch wrapping and labeling. Aside from loading and shipping, there is only a small team of employees who enter the facility for planned maintenance or unscheduled repairs, and the plant is supervised and controlled from a separate location.
“The DC was conceived as a lights-out facility [from] the very beginning,” says Spadini, emphasizing its contribution to the company’s larger effort to create a more sustainable supply chain.
Those goals are ongoing, as are improvements and upgrades in Parma that leaders at both Barilla and E80 say will continue to improve production and reduce energy consumption. Similar automation projects are planned for other Barilla facilities around the world as well.
The German forklift vendor Kion Group plans to lay off an unspecified number of workers as part of an “efficiency program” it is launching to strengthen the company’s resilience and maintain headroom for future investments, the company said today.
The new structural measures are intended to optimize Kion’s efficiency, executives said in their fourth quarter earnings report.
“While internal programs to continuously improve product, production, and services costs were already up and running throughout 2024 and will continue, further structural measures will address a more efficient setup for Kion in Europe. This is expected to have an impact on personnel requirements subject to consultations with the respective employee representative bodies as required by local laws,” the report said.
“The efficiency program is addressing developments in the macroeconomic environment. European economies are struggling to gain momentum – this affects key customer industries in the Industrial Trucks & Services segment, where Chinese competitors have been improving their market position in the aftermaths of the recent pandemics,” Kion said.
The move comes as Kion reported that it finished its 2024 financial year with slightly improved revenue of $11.9 billion (over $11.8 billion in 2023), and profitability (measured as earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT)) that significantly increased to $951 million (over $820 million in 2023).
The company now plans to pay $249 to $269 million in financial year 2025 to implement the cost saving measures. Following that one-time charge, it expects to achieve sustainable cost savings of $145 million to $166 million per year, beginning in 2026.
“In order to maintain headroom for investments ensuring our future, to further strengthen our competitiveness and our resilience, we must manage our cost base. This requires structural and sustainable measures,” Christian Harm, CFO of Kion, said in a release.
By the numbers, fourth quarter shipment volume was down 4.7% compared to the prior quarter, while spending dropped 2.2%.
Geographically, fourth-quarter shipment volume was low across all regions. The Northeast had the smallest decline at 1.2% with the West just behind with a contraction of 2.1%. And the Southeast saw shipments drop 6.7%, the most of all regions, as hurricanes impacted freight activity.
“While this quarter’s Index revealed spending overall on truck freight continues to decline, we did see some signs that spending per truck is increasing,” said Bobby Holland, U.S. Bank director of freight business analytics. “Shipments falling more than spending – even with lower fuel surcharges – suggests tighter capacity.”
The U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index measures quantitative changes in freight shipments and spend activity based on data from transactions processed through U.S. Bank Freight Payment, which processes more than $43 billion in freight payments annually for shippers and carriers across the U.S.
“It’s clear there are both cyclical and structural challenges remaining as we look for a truck freight market reboot,” Bob Costello, senior vice president and chief economist at the American Trucking Associations (ATA) said in a release on the results. “For instance, factory output softness – which has a disproportionate impact on truck freight volumes – is currently weighing heavily on our industry.”
Volvo Autonomous Solutions will form a strategic partnership with autonomous driving technology and generative AI provider Waabi to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks, with testing scheduled to begin later this year.
The announcement came two weeks after autonomous truck developer Kodiak Robotics said it had become the first company in the industry to launch commercial driverless trucking operations. That milestone came as oil company Atlas Energy Solutions Inc. used two RoboTrucks—which are semi-trucks equipped with the Kodiak Driver self-driving system—to deliver 100 loads of fracking material on routes in the Permian Basin in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico.
Atlas now intends to scale up its RoboTruck deployment “considerably” over the course of 2025, with multiple RoboTruck deployments expected throughout the year. In support of that, Kodiak has established a 12-person office in Odessa, Texas, that is projected to grow to approximately 20 people by the end of Q1 2025.
Businesses dependent on ocean freight are facing shipping delays due to volatile conditions, as the global average trip for ocean shipments climbed to 68 days in the fourth quarter compared to 60 days for that same quarter a year ago, counting time elapsed from initial booking to clearing the gate at the final port, according to E2open.
Those extended transit times and booking delays are the ripple effects of ongoing turmoil at key ports that is being caused by geopolitical tensions, labor shortages, and port congestion, Dallas-based E2open said in its quarterly “Ocean Shipping Index” report.
The most significant contributor to the year-over-year (YoY) increase is actual transit time, alongside extraordinary volatility that has created a complex landscape for businesses dependent on ocean freight, the report found.
"Economic headwinds, geopolitical turbulence and uncertain trade routes are creating unprecedented disruptions within the ocean shipping industry. From continued Red Sea diversions to port congestion and labor unrest, businesses face a complex landscape of obstacles, all while grappling with possibility of new U.S. tariffs," Pawan Joshi, chief strategy officer (CSO) at e2open, said in a release. "We can expect these ongoing issues will be exacerbated by the Lunar New Year holiday, as businesses relying on Asian suppliers often rush to place orders, adding strain to their supply chains.”
Lunar New Year this year runs from January 29 to February 8, and often leads to supply chain disruptions as massive worker travel patterns across Asia leads to closed factories and reduced port capacity.
Women are significantly underrepresented in the global transport sector workforce, comprising only 12% of transportation and storage workers worldwide as they face hurdles such as unfavorable workplace policies and significant gender gaps in operational, technical and leadership roles, a study from the World Bank Group shows.
This underrepresentation limits diverse perspectives in service design and decision-making, negatively affects businesses and undermines economic growth, according to the report, “Addressing Barriers to Women’s Participation in Transport.” The paper—which covers global trends and provides in-depth analysis of the women’s role in the transport sector in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and Middle East and North Africa (MENA)—was prepared jointly by the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the International Transport Forum (ITF).
The slim proportion of women in the sector comes at a cost, since increasing female participation and leadership can drive innovation, enhance team performance, and improve service delivery for diverse users, while boosting GDP and addressing critical labor shortages, researchers said.
To drive solutions, the researchers today unveiled the Women in Transport (WiT) Network, which is designed to bring together transport stakeholders dedicated to empowering women across all facets and levels of the transport sector, and to serve as a forum for networking, recruitment, information exchange, training, and mentorship opportunities for women.
Initially, the WiT network will cover only the Europe and Central Asia and the Middle East and North Africa regions, but it is expected to gradually expand into a global initiative.
“When transport services are inclusive, economies thrive. Yet, as this joint report and our work at the EIB reveal, few transport companies fully leverage policies to better attract, retain and promote women,” Laura Piovesan, the European Investment Bank (EIB)’s Director General of the Projects Directorate, said in a release. “The Women in Transport Network enables us to unite efforts and scale impactful solutions - benefiting women, employers, communities and the climate.”