Industrial Automation Magazine India

Mecalux equips two Alpargatas logistics facilities — one dedicated to the production lines and the other to distribution — with semi-automated and conventional storage solutions.

Barcelona, January 09, 2024. The Mecalux Group has outfitted two logistics facilities of the multinational Alpargatas, owner of the Havaianas sandals brand. Mecalux installed several storage systems, enabling Alpargatas to cope with increased production and meet the growing market demand. The facilities are located in the Brazilian city of Campina Grande and the town of Santa Rita, respectively.

The Campina Grande warehouse consolidates stock from the company's manufacturing centres in north-eastern Brazil. Merchandise is stored on conventional racking with capacity for 34,000 pallets. This distribution centre (DC) is one of Alpargatas' largest in Brazil. It features 40 loading docks and a spacious staging area to handle the fulfilment and shipment of 1,500 orders per day, including items such as Havaianas flip-flop sandals. The footwear is distributed within the country and internationally to some extent.

For the Santa Rita plant, Alpargatas chose Mecalux's semi-automated Pallet Shuttle to perform pallet storage and retrieval operations. This high-density system houses over 1,000 pallets in less than 300 m². The compact solution consists of a shuttle car with an electric motor that transports pallets inside the racking autonomously. With the automation provided by the Pallet Shuttle, the company can efficiently supply its production lines.

"The main benefit we've seen with Mecalux's semi-automated Pallet Shuttle system is the significant reduction in the floor space required to store all the products," says Rodrigo Lakes, Logistics Manager at Alpargatas DC. Lakes points out that the solutions implemented in the two facilities have allowed the business to successfully implement its logistics centralisation strategy. "We knew exactly what we needed to do: expand storage capacity, streamline shipping and effectively distribute all our finished goods," he says.

With its investment in Mecalux's semi-automated system, Alpargatas can now store and retrieve 300 pallets a day at its production centre. Speeding up these processes with Mecalux technology has helped Alpargatas maximise its supply chain efficiency.