Page 26 - Food&Drink Magazine October 2018

PLANT DESIGN & FITOUT
Woolies’ distibution centre sets new benchmarks
Woolworths’ new Dandenong distribution centre boasts 14km of high-speed conveyors and 50 robots and is Victoria’s largest industrial highbay, writes Amanda Bryan.
VAUGHAN Constructions has teamed up with Woolworths in the design and construction of a new fully automated highbay distribution centre in Dandenong, Victoria.
Reaching 45 meters tall, the purpose-built facility boasts over 69,217 square metres of warehouse and corporate office space.
The project reportedly cost the supermarket giant $562 million – more than $350 million of which went on automation and construction, but the new facility is expected to deliver cost savings and productivity benefits of between $40 - 50 million per year, with some estimating it will pay for
itself in around five years. Vaughan Constructions was
awarded the design and construction contract following the successful delivery of Woolworths’ first automated food processing facility, Woolworths Meats, in Truganina in 2015.
The new Dandenong distribution centre is Woolworths’ largest ever single investment project.
Features of the new distribution centre include multi-story racking systems, high-speed conveyors and sorting systems, which provide Woolworths with the capacity to sort and distribute stock at far greater levels of accuracy,
and also at a pace that has previously not been possible in traditional warehousing operations.
The new distribution centre can potentially stock 220,000 SKUs, compared with about 6500 in a conventional distribution centre.
The 17-level high bay storage area is able to house more than 60,000 pallets and stock movements are controlled by JDA Software replenishment and warehouse management systems.
The facility will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and will supply Woolworths stores in northern and eastern Victoria.
26 | Food&Drink business | October 2018 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au