StarTrack has invested in a rebuild of the linear sorter system at its Minchinbury distribution centre in Sydney with new technology from Dematic.
The Minchinbury site is the major DC supplying and delivering across the Sydney metro area, and uses four sorters; approximately 10,000 parcels move through it every day with overnight turnaround. Around every 10 years, the chain in the sorter reaches the end of its life, according to facility manager Trent Jones.
“Continuity of operations is crucial here at StarTrack. Every minute the sortation system is down costs us serious money, so it was important that we got a sorter rebuilt over a short period of time to ensure as little disruption as possible,” he said.
StarTrack turned to Dematic to refurbish the Sliding-Shoe Linear Sorter system, a rebuild which was planned six months to a year in advance to make sure everything was finished on time.
Dematic had 15 people on site, each working a 12-hour shift so that the rebuild was running 24 hours a day. This ensured that the finished machine was delivered to StarTrack on time, and was ready to begin live operations the following Tuesday morning, said Anthony Gough, project manager at Dematic.
“Planning was crucial, as we had to check off numerous parts that came from America, because we could not afford to pull apart the sorter and find we were missing bits halfway through the rebuild.
“The rebuild was scheduled over a long weekend, and we got access to the sorter from 11pm on Friday night and got straight into it,” he said.
According to Jones, StarTrack is happy with the new equipment, which is running more quietly and smoothly than the old.
“The collaboration between Dematic and StarTrack was excellent. There was a stringent plan in place to have the rebuild done over that short period of time, with no disruption to the workflow, and Dematic were very thorough in ensuring the rebuilt would happen on time,” he said.
