Background
Mezzacorona Group, an Italian winemaker, needed a better way to store and handle the wine labels affixed to bottles. Labels stored on traditional shelves can easily become discolored, making it difficult for operators to find the correct label without an effective inventory system. In addition, due to the heavy weight of the labels, operators have to transport large rolls of labels to the production line, which is very laborious and dangerous. Installing two Modula VLMs enabled the company to fully protect labels, streamline processes and speed retrieval, and reduce the physical burden on operators. Mezzacorona Group also saves space and optimizes the performance and maintenance needs of VLMs through Modula Cloud.
Pain Points
Founded in 1904 as a cooperative of 1,600 winegrowers in the northern Italian province of Trentino, the Mezzacorona Group bottles wines for six regional brands. The labels to be affixed to the bottles during production are stored on traditional racks. Exposed to air and dust, they will discolor over time. And workers had to search the entire shelf storage area for a certain label. Each 33cm label reel weighs 20kg, so picking them off the shelves is a laborious task for Mezzacarona’s production staff. And this process is also prone to picking errors, leading to inefficiency.
The labels also take up 700 square meters of floor space that could be used for other purposes.
Solution
Mezzacorona purchased a pair of Modula Lift ML75Ds and the benefits were immediately apparent when the required floor space was reduced to 28.59 m2 (an 87% reduction in floor space). The switch has also greatly aided production, as workers can retrieve the required wine labels with one click through the container’s control screen. Heavy label spools are delivered to an ergonomic tray opening for easy operator picking, reducing the effort of retrieving labels.
Because the containers are completely enclosed, harmful environmental effects – such as air oxidation and dust – are minimized, and more than 1,000 types of labels are preserved intact. Mezzacorona also wanted to ensure their Modula Lift was properly maintained, so they purchased Modula Cloud to optimize maintenance schedules and avoid unplanned downtime. The Cloud also provides comprehensive monitoring of machine usage – in terms of its picking speed, cycle times, power consumption and total retrieval “tasks”.
