Warrington, UK - December 2009

Music and Film distribution

Conveyor Networks complete the contract to automate the movement of goods between picking and packing areas at HMV Guernsey.

CD and DVD products are among the fast moving products at the distribution centre of a HMV.Com Channel isles operation.

At HMV.Com,, the movement of picked  goods to the packing area was becoming an issue, with ever increasing volumes there needed to be a reliable solution to the problem of manual transport of products via a goods lift.

The Task

Over single or double shift periods, items have to be transported from storage to packing area, products ranging from music and software CDs as well as DVDs were  suggested to be handled in a standard Euro container and loaded onto a conveyor system which fed a uniquely designed spiral elevator.

Top priority was given to reliability and low maintenance, particularly during the busy period, from September to January when the plant runs a three shift operation and any downtime would be extremely costly.

Top priority was given to reliability and low maintenance

The concept was unique as the spiral is actually two units mounted onto one central column, the main reason for this solution is that it uses the minimal amount of space. As with other channel island operators that Transnorm have supplied, the space is at a premium.

The system effectively distributes product between floor levels and will return empty trays to the system start points. There are other considerations to be taken into account when dealing with projects on such a small island, not least is the basic logistics of getting such a large machine into the facility and successfully erecting it in a safe manner. The fact that they were able to view a similar machine on the mainland helped HMV in the decision making process.

“ We were able to see the machine close up and quiz the  client about the machine and installation says  HMV project manager Adam Saunders, we also made reference visits to other clients in our sector, and were very happy with the responses we got”

So When a solution was needed for handling CD and DVDs, the online retailer HMV.Com  chose Conveyor Networks  whose specialists had immediate access to tried and tested modular systems.