I. Customer Background
A century-old Brazilian manufacturer of cookware and tools (hereinafter “Company T”), founded in 1911 and headquartered in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Drawing on more than a century of craftsmanship and continuous innovation, Company T has become an internationally recognized manufacturer of cookware, cutlery, home appliances and tools, with products exported to more than 120 countries worldwide.
As its business continues to expand and production scale keeps growing, Company T faces multiple challenges: complex management of semi-finished goods inventory, tight warehousing space, and bottlenecks in inbound and outbound efficiency. To support future growth and improve the overall production takt, the company decided to systematically upgrade its internal logistics system. This upgrade project is currently being implemented by ATOMIX.
II. Project Challenges
Before the project started, Company T's semi-finished goods storage relied mainly on conventional flat-floor warehouses and some semi-automated equipment, which presented the following prominent problems:
- Low space utilization: flat-floor warehouses struggle to meet growing demand for semi-finished goods storage, and the plant site has limited land resources;
- Diverse pallet specifications: different production lines use pallets of different sizes, and conventional automated equipment has poor compatibility;
- Complex equipment coordination: the plant already runs some third-party equipment such as AMRs, making the integration of old and new systems difficult;
- Sensitivity to investment and retrofit costs: the customer wanted to achieve a technological leap without scrapping all of its existing solutions;
- High requirements for localized service: as a Brazilian company, Company T has clear requirements for delivery efficiency, language communication and after-sales response.
In response to these challenges, ATOMIX has completed the solution design and entered the on-site implementation phase; all work is progressing steadily on schedule and is now in the final sprint of equipment commissioning.
III. Solution
ATOMIX tailored a high-density intelligent storage system for Company T, built around the Pallet Shuttle (four-way pallet shuttle) and deployed in a warehouse of about 4,000 m² with a building height of 26 m. The core configuration is as follows:
| Item | Parameter |
|---|---|
| Warehouse area | ~4,000 m² |
| Storage height | 26 m |
| Total pallet locations | ~30,000 |
| Maximum load per pallet | 600 kg |
| System throughput (design) | >200 pallets per hour |
| Pallet Shuttle | 25 units of PS1500A (being deployed) |
| Lifts | 9 units |
| Management software | Matrix8-HETU software system |
The system uses a flexible, discrete equipment architecture: the four-way pallet shuttle can move forward, backward, left and right within a horizontal plane, and works with lifts to perform cross-level operations, enabling precise storage and retrieval of any pallet location.
IV. Project Value (Being Delivered Step by Step)
As equipment installation and system commissioning proceed, the project's various value propositions are being realized step by step:
1. Multi-specification compatibility significantly lowers total cost
The four-way pallet shuttle system inherently offers flexible scheduling capability and can accommodate pallets of different sizes and load capacities. Multi-specification pallet compatibility testing has now been completed on site, and Company T does not need to customize equipment or modify production lines for specific specifications, greatly reducing equipment procurement and integration costs and delivering the economics of “one system, multiple adaptations.”
2. Compatibility with old and new solutions protects existing investment
Leveraging its strong solution design capability, ATOMIX achieved seamless integration between the old and new systems without dismantling the core framework of the customer's existing solution. Interface commissioning is progressing smoothly at this stage, which not only reduces the risk of production downtime during the retrofit but also improves the versatility and compatibility of the overall solution, helping the customer complete its intelligent upgrade at a lower threshold.
3. Storage location utilization up more than 300% (target achieved)
Compared with a conventional flat-floor warehouse, this high-density four-way pallet shuttle system makes full use of the 26 m of vertical space. Through a dense storage layout, it increases the number of pallet locations on the same footprint by more than 300%. Racking installation is now nearly complete, and 29,830 pallet locations will soon be fully operational. In an industrial environment where land costs keep rising, this value is especially significant.
4. Multi-device ecosystem collaboration connects in-plant logistics
The system has a strongly open ecosystem and can efficiently connect to and coordinate with third-party equipment such as the AMRs Company T already uses. Interface commissioning between the AMRs and the shuttle system is underway: the pallet shuttles handle pallet storage and retrieval inside the dense storage area, while the AMRs complete short-distance transfers between line-side locations and outside the warehouse, forming an integrated logistics loop of “dense storage + flexible handling” and significantly improving overall operational efficiency.
5. Localized technology delivery, service with zero distance
ATOMIX delivered its self-developed technology end to end through a local Brazilian team, adopting a model of remote guidance + on-site supervision + localized implementation, from on-site deployment to system commissioning and subsequent operations and maintenance. This not only eliminates the time and language barriers of cross-border communication but also ensures fast response and long-term, stable after-sales service.
V. Expected Results (Production Start Imminent)
Once the system is fully online, Company T's semi-finished goods storage will achieve the following significant improvements:
- Storage capacity leap: without adding any land, pallet locations rise from fewer than 10,000 in the original flat-floor warehouse to 29,830;
- Higher operational efficiency: inbound and outbound throughput steadily reaches 203 pallets per hour, effectively supporting the production line takt;
- Lower operating costs: less manual forklift work and less time spent searching for goods in the warehouse, reducing labor and equipment wear;
- Greater production continuity: the system runs stably 24/7, precisely matching semi-finished goods supply to production line demand;
- Future scalability: the system architecture supports smooth expansion, allowing shuttles and lifts to be added gradually as business grows.
VI. Summary and Outlook
Company T's smart warehouse project in Brazil is a successful example of four-way pallet shuttle technology in the field of high-density semi-finished goods storage. Although the project has not yet been fully delivered, on-site progress has already fully validated the feasibility of the solution. Through a flexible equipment architecture, an old-and-new system compatibility strategy, multi-device ecosystem collaboration and localized delivery, ATOMIX not only helped the customer resolve its immediate warehousing bottleneck but also built an intelligent logistics foundation with long-term scalability.
The project fully demonstrates that in manufacturing scenarios with limited land, high throughput requirements and a complex equipment ecosystem, the four-way pallet shuttle system is an efficient, reliable and economical choice for warehouse upgrades.
As the project site enters its final sprint, the official go-live is approaching. In the future, as Company T's business continues to expand, the smart warehouse will be further expanded, and deeper integration with the manufacturing execution system (MES) will be explored, moving from “intelligent storage of semi-finished goods” toward “intelligent manufacturing across the entire process.”