Kent Moving and Storage's Villawood site has one of the largest automatic container systems in the world. 

Well-known specialist in the development, design and construction of commercial and industrial facilities, Wilkore Pty Ltd has built one of the largest fully-automated container storage systems in the world. Developed and constructed for Kent Moving and Storage, the Wilkore facility in Villlawood, NSW, is a world-leading example of cost-effective container storage and retrieval.

Kent’s Villawood container warehouse is the largest and most up-to-date in the southern hemisphere. Taking two years from concept to completion, the $15-million Sydney depot has a capacity for 1,200 full-size shipping containers under cover. Wilkore designed the facility with a fully-enclosed storage warehouse that stores up to 36,000 cubic metres, or 1,200 x 20 foot containers at any given time, and stores them 5 wide x 6 high x 30 deep.

The objective
Like most national removal firms, Kent quickly realised the advantages offered by efficient coast-to-coast containerised rail transport. But unlike most national operators, the company’s CEO Graham Kent also recognised the need to revise storage methods to take full advantage of the long-term benefits offered by the container storage system.

In the early 1990s, Kent formulated a plan to provide enclosed and secure warehouse storage for containers on concrete hardstand in all Australian capital cities. This storage system, fully protected from weather, became Kent’s vision for the future and Kent is now well on the way to turning the plan into reality.

With this vision in mind, Graham Kent formed a partnership with Wilkore, who had previously built the company’s Melbourne premises, to design and construct a new storage facility unlike any other for its Villawood site.

Kent had in the past moved most of its interstate shipments in linehaul pantechnicons of 80-120 cubic metre capacity, unloading the vans at their interstate storage depots and warehousing the furniture until the day of dispatch. The outgoing container was loaded again to be delivered to its final destination.

The issue of storing containers where land value is high had become a major concern to Kent. As many long-term containers were being held at any one time, the problem of optimising the given space for warehousing needed to be addressed to implement cost-saving efforts across its storage facilities.

Kent saw standardising the storage method as a solution to efficiently manage and significantly reduce its warehouse space. The goal was to eliminate all pantechnicons and timber containers that they had been using, and to utilise containers of a single size, 20 ft, to store all goods.

Kent also wanted the ability to store containers inside a controlled and secure building, along with the ability to automatically move and store 20 ft containers with a crane and interface the storage system for tracking and tracing. To insulate the containers from the weather, the company then wanted to relocate them inside a building, stacking the 20 ft containers 6 high and automatically move them around the storage facility when required.

Another part of the project was to identify the need to stack and unstack containers in tighter areas and minimise dock sizes as well as loading areas where possible. Maximising space within a smaller lot size and reducing the overall physical size of the storage facility were paramount in the planning stage for Kent and Wilkore.

The challenges
The challenge for Wilkore was to design a fully automatic facility in a relatively small area, and yet provide far more advanced technological advancements than ever before.

With all of Mr Kent’s objectives in mind, Michael Wilkinson, Wilkore’s managing director, travelled to Europe to research leading-edge technologies that could be utilised for the Australian facility. Of the technologies he saw, Mr Wilkinson identified the Hollestelle Automatic Crane as leading the way in container stacking and retrieval.

While the technology to be implemented was chosen, the biggest challenge then was to design and build a new facility around the technology, rather than the other way around.

According to Mr Wilkinson, this is the unique difference in the new automatic container system for Kent. The actual design and construction of the building was designed around the systems that were nominated for use within the existing structure.

“The team behind the Villawood facility had the foresight to select the systems prior to the construction stage, therefore saving Kent Moving and Storage hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process,” Mr Wilkinson said.

The automatic container system
Forming a strategic part of the new container storage facility is the automatic container system (ACS), a unique container processing system brought to Australia by Wilkore.

The ACS has been developed with a revolutionary concept designed for intensive usability, a manual and radio remote control and positioning system, and fully computer-operated automatic operation.

The Hollestelle automatic stacking crane is designed for both speed and efficiency and maximises storage volumes at the Kent facility. From a spatial point of view, the ACS would be one of the most optimal solutions available for warehousing.

Containers are handled within reduced timeframes and labour costs by using the computer-operated ‘plan ahead positioning system’ (PAPS) with a spreader for automatic handling of 20 ft ISO containers, and an adaptor for manual handling of 40 ft containers. The ACS has both automatic and manual functions that allow Kent to reduce its costs in terms of labour. In addition, the system has an extremely low energy use as a result of incorporating modern components.

How does the ACS work at Kent
In simple terms, a truck drives inside the warehouse to the ‘incoming’ buffer zone. The crane manually lifts the container from the truck. At this point, a unique container information system (CIS) code is assigned to that container and it is then stacked in the arrival area. The empty truck moves to the ‘outgoing’ buffer zone for loading of an outgoing container, which has been placed in the departure area. The delivered container is stacked in an area designated in accordance with its expected storage period, which can vary from a few days to many years.

When a container is due for shipping, the CIS will automatically find the nominated container within the facility and move it to the outgoing buffer area. Utilising the relevant shipment data stored, it also determines when a specific container needs to be relocated.

The CIS can track and re-track the entire life of the container and is highly accurate and efficient. The operators at Kent are now only responsible for entering the time the container was received into the system. The program takes over from there, making it impossible to lose a container.

The ACS also ensures that container retrieval is faster than ever before, taking approximately 10 minutes to retrieve a container from the facility. This enables faster turnaround for Kent’s customers and also improves productivity from the staff.

Jim Ewing, Kent’s warehouse manager who operates the ACS, is very pleased with the system.

“We can enter in the container numbers the previous day, and the crane will move them into the buffer zone, unattended, overnight,” he said. “It is then just a matter of loading the containers onto the trucks in the morning.

“My boss doesn’t even know that I’d taken a tea- or lunch break. I just program in the numbers required and it’s done the work by the time I come back from my break.”

Several security and safety features built into the system ensure that it is safe to operate at all times. The operator cannot unlock the twistlocks manually, for example, until the container is securely resting. Another feature, a tilt sensor, prevents the container being put down lopsided.

What Kent has gained
Wilkore designed and built for Kent Moving and Storage a technologically advanced facility on one-third of the space of their previous site. With the cost of land in NSW continually rising, the reduction in lot size was a significant cost saving for Kent.

In addition, Kent now has a fully automatic indoor storage facility that is safer, faster, cheaper and more efficient to run than any other facility of its kind in the industry. Long-term storage containers are no longer stored outdoors, and the advantages of moving the facility into a fully enclosed area are significant.

The impact on the land from heavy equipment and large forklifts has also been reduced and the cost savings on the concrete yards and pavements in the longer term will be tremendous. As Kent is no longer running as many forklifts, the company is saving on labour, energy, maintenance, yard damage and reducing the noise in the yards. Eliminating forklifts has increased the safety aspects of the site and makes the entire facility much safer for the staff.

Kent now plans to expand on the quality and capacity of its current storage facilities by building new, state-of-the-art fully automated container stores incorporating the latest European gantry cranes and equipment in every capital city in Australia.

Kent had the foresight to automate its container storage and Wilkore had the expertise and innovation to design one of the most technologically advanced container storage facilities available in the world.

Kent and Wilkore have taken container handling and storage to a new level and the facility is a fine example of what two Australian companies can achieve in partnership. The completed facility is now one of the largest automatic container storage systems in operation in the world.

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