Efficiency in focus at Coop’s automated goods terminal

At a time when efficiency and sustainability are high on the agenda in retail, Coop Sweden has taken a big step forward with its new fully automated terminal in Eskilstuna. Here, GS1 standards are an important cog in a large machine where humans and new technology work together.

In September, GS1 Sweden visited the large goods terminal in Eskilstuna, which is equivalent to 51 football fields in size. The facility is now the hub of Coop’s entire supply chain with deliveries to all 800 Coop stores. Attached to the goods terminal is also the Coop train, which enables the company to increase the proportion of rail transport replacing 17,000 truck runs. In just a few weeks, the facility will be fully operational.

The initiative aims to streamline the logistics chain for the entire company. And achieve a number of business benefits such as improved delivery quality, fill rate, traceability and sustainability.

A terminal with a 95% automation rate

Ulf Axelsson, Head of Terminals, Coop Logistik offers a tour of the terminal. He shows, among other things, the processes of de-palletizing, picking on pallets and pallet sorting, which are now fully automated with the help of robots. The degree of automation is 95% and production is running almost around the clock.

The terminal has inbound and outbound deliveries of around 8,000 pallets per day. This means that the picking robots handle around 370,000 retail packs (B-pack) in one day.

– No human hand touches the B-pack during the process. Everything is handled by our robots, which are controlled by our co-workers, says Ulf Axelsson.

The project for a new automated goods terminal began in 2018. Swedish Coop has benefited from the experiences and achieved effects of Coop Norway, which has already launched a fully automated facility.

Standards and new technologies create business value

As new technologies become more prevalent in businesses, a common business language becomes even more relevant. Coop is a good example of how automation combined with GS1 standards for identification, barcodes and data sharing can help:

• streamline inbound and outbound deliveries
• ensure quality with the right information base
• facilitate the tracking of products and deliveries

Here, GS1’s role is to create the conditions with robust data carriers combined with standardized data that means the same thing to everyone in the value chain. And services that help industries simplify and streamline the use of GS1 standards.

A common business language – a prerequisite

Data quality is another key element in keeping the flow efficient and avoiding disruption in various processes. For example, inadequate data can lead to a pallet being left too long at delivery, which in turn delays transportation. Therefore, Coop needs access to accurate and structured data that can be read by both machines and humans.

– We try to avoid temporary stops in production at all costs and therefore it is important that we have access to the right information,” says Ulf Axelsson.

To support its processes, Coop uses different types of data:

• GS1 standards for identification and capturing
• Master data shared via GDSN and Validoo
• Quality assured item information
• Transactional data via purchase order and shipping notification via EDI

Coop’s automation journey shows that investing in modern technology, combined with a common digital business language, can improve efficiency, create business benefits in several areas and contribute to a more future-proof industry.