At De Jong Verpakking, since 2023 part of Stora Enso, in De Lier, Netherlands, Pesmel’s automated Warehouse Management System (WMS) controls the entire roll flow from raw material reception to corrugator roll feeding.
Making light work of heavy material
De Jong Verpakking, founded in 1996, now operates one of Europe’s largest and most modern corrugated packaging facilities in De Lier. This state-of-the-art facility, which was officially opened in early 2024, covers a significant expansion in production capacity. Spanning over 100,000 square meters, the new addition, constructed adjacent to the existing plant, was achieved through vertical construction on a footprint of just 55,000 square meters. The implementation of Pesmel’s WMS at the second facility has revolutionized the roll handling process. Unlike traditional manual methods, which can be time-consuming and pose safety risks, this automated system ensures efficient roll flow management, significantly enhancing productivity and safety standards.
One critical aspect of the solution is the nine-level high fully automated board roll warehouse which acts as a raw material buffer for the corrugators. These machines make corrugated fiberboard for cardboard box manufacturing, necessitating careful handling of the rolls to prevent damage that could disrupt operations.
“We wanted to find a way to automate the roll handling in our new plant,” explains Dick Schep, VP Operations of BU Western Europe. “The automated high-bay rack storage has been tailored according to our specific needs and with the centralized flow management system it provides a complete solution.”
Furthermore, given the diverse range of products offered by De Jong Verpakking, precise identification and sorting of raw materials are essential for efficient production. The Pesmel Warehouse Management System plays a crucial role in managing the material flow, ensuring accurate and timely delivery to the appropriate machines.
Complete reliability for customer and end-consumer satisfaction
At the core of Pesmel’s solution is the state-of-the-art WMS. The system monitors and controls material flow between raw material buffers, corrugators, the conveyor system, and automated guided vehicles which feed rolls to and from the corrugator pockets. “Performing manual operations in a plant of this size and type isn’t really an alternative,” says Kaj Fahllund, VP, Pulp and Paper at Pesmel. “Instead, our automated flow solution provides the required accuracy, safety and performance.”
The Pesmel WMS manages raw material incoming to the automated roll warehouse, its sorting and storing, transfer to conveyors, and delivery to corrugators. In fact, there is hardly any part in this material flow that is untouched by it. The Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) submits the tasks for production and inventory control via Pesmel’s WMS, which communicates these plans to automated roll warehouse and third-party equipment, tracks status, controls schedules, and provides alarm and error information in case of any problems. Data that can be later used for analytics is constantly tracked and used for continuous process improvement and optimization.
“We promise our customers deliveries within 24 hours.”
Dick Schep, VP Operations of BU Western Europe
Pesmel’s WMS architecture for software and hardware removes the need for many overlapping system integrations and the plant’s roll flow is available via one user interface. User operation is simple and intuitive, and the system’s design makes maintenance and future expansions easier to implement. For De Jong Verpakking, the system makes fulfilling their customer promises possible. “We promise a lot to our customers,” Schep says, “from deliveries within 24 hours to having 30 million items permanently in stock. To meet these guarantees, we need a completely reliable and highly efficient operations and logistics network in place, in which Pesmel’s WMS and automated roll warehouse plays an important role.”
For Pesmel, installation of the WMS and automated roll warehouse has been an important breakthrough in the paper converting segment. This is the first corrugator plant to which we have fitted the automated roll flow management. “The De Lier project shows that our solution provides efficient operations in really any industry or business that relies on automated warehousing and logistic solutions to fulfil their customer promises and maximise the efficiency of their storage and production ecosystems,” Fahllund concludes.