An innovative system at an international level in the name of customer service, efficiency, sustainability and safety: this is what the new Stellantis Logistics Center in Rivalta represents, which was built on the foundations of the historic production plant of the Fiat Group which, in order to over 30 years has seen the birth of models that have made the history of the Italian automobile, from the 124 Spider to the 128, from the Fiat Uno to the Alfa Romeo 166. Without forgetting the Lancia Delta.
The new center, opened in 2021, despite the difficulties deriving from the pandemic, for which 150 million euros were invested as part of the industrial plan for Italy 2019-2021 of over 5 billion euros, supports over 5,000 destinations , with a considerable reduction in delivery times to dealers and workshops and a consequent improvement in the quality of customer assistance. “Giving new life to a plant that symbolizes a great industrial heritage and transforming it into an international distribution center for cutting-edge and innovative spare parts – comments Pietro Gorlier, Stellantis Chief Parts and Services Officer – is a source of great pride.
The refurbishment of this industrial plant was based on a 360 degree sustainability approach. The choice of building materials with low environmental and emission impact, the installation of low water consumption systems, the planting of about 100 trees chosen from among the species with the highest CO2 absorption are just some of the winning environmental solutions at the basis of the project.
The Autostore and the automatic shelving, called ASRS (Automated storage and retrieval system) in technical jargon, are the beating heart of the new warehouse’s activity. The renewed spaces adopt innovative solutions in terms of ergonomics, safety and efficiency of the workstations used by workers. In particular, the warehouse is spread over a covered area of about 220,000 square meters, the equivalent of 30 regulation football fields and is equipped with 50 loading and unloading piers equipped with a particular safety system that allows the locking of the vehicle wheels. .
The Autostore is a latest generation plant, characterized by a high storage density and reliability that covers an area of 5,000 square meters in which about 230,000 different medium / small products are stored. The required material is picked up by 60 robots that move at a speed of 3 meters per second and are able to process 1,000 picking cycles per hour. The parts are transported by robots up to the 13 “operator bays”, ie areas, where the operators receive the material and organize the shipment to the customers.
The Autostore has a self-supporting aluminum structure that contains 135,000 plastic boxes stacked one on top of the other up to a height of 6 meters. To make the picking cycle from the shelving efficient, the frequency of demand means that the most requested boxes are stored high up. In this sector, 50% of the spare parts codes corresponding to approximately 40% of the order lines of the entire Rivalta warehouse are managed.
The Automated High Bay Warehouse is a system consisting of a self-supporting double-depth storage shelving with 12 stacker cranes, a sorting system with 22 self-propelled shuttles and 7 “operator bays” for large materials and manages 10% of the spare codes corresponding to approximately 15% of the order lines of the entire Rivalta warehouse. It covers an area of 10,000 square meters and, with a height of 22 meters, allows the storage of 50,000 metal containers or pallets and about 45,000 parts.
The automatic shelving is the most traditional section of the warehouse, but it has been renewed in technology and in terms of energy efficiency and sustainability: it is in fact possible to recover a large part of the energy that is consumed by the stacker elevators themselves. Each workstation has been designed following the most modern rules of ergonomics: the workstations are equipped with a technology that allows you to adjust the height and inclination of each container. The protections and sensors fitted to the “operator bays” protect the safety of all man-machine interactions throughout the container handling procedure.
Both Autostore and the Automatic Shelving relieve the operators from actions with low added value and waste of energy to concentrate them on the operations with the greatest impact on the service (selection and picking and preparation of shipments).
The Parts Distribution Center in Rivalta is equipped with an excellent photovoltaic system consisting of approximately 2,900 solar panels capable of self-producing over 1.1 MW of electricity, equal to approximately 17% of the plant’s needs. The remaining requirement is covered by purchasing electricity from certified renewable sources.
The newly built office building, thanks to the various sustainable solutions present, is the first Italian building with such a large surface area to have obtained the prestigious international LEED Platinum V4 certification with 48% energy savings and 30% water savings compared to a traditional building. LEED, in fact, makes it possible to establish the performance of buildings in terms of energy and water saving, CO2 emissions, the materials used, the ecological quality of the interiors and the place of construction. For example, the hot water used in all the services of the district is produced by 32 solar walls installed on the south facade of the office building capable of capturing solar energy on both sides. To capture as much natural light as possible, the internal energy, the one facing the building, is also absorbed. The partially transparent wall also acts as a shading on the most exposed part, with a great benefit throughout the summer season.
The Rivalta Parts Distribution Center is part of a global network of Stellantis which brings together more than seventy spare parts distribution centers and about 11,000 employees. The reference markets are 167 while the daily order lines are 350 thousand (reaching more than 400 thousand with intra-warehouse shipments) to reach more than 6000 destinations.
SOURCE: Stellantis
