MPE Plastics Turin Automotive Warehouse

Project Overview

MPE Plastics, operating as a second-tier supplier in the automotive sector producing components using injection and blow molding technologies, faced the challenges of global growth and increasingly restrictive customer requirements. Based in Turin, Italy, the company supplies automotive components from their two production facilities in Marte and Villanova, serving international customers across the automotive industry.

The company recognized the critical need to maintain reliability, speed, and punctuality in their operations - essential requirements in the demanding automotive supply chain. With incoming orders becoming increasingly variable in the current business climate, flexibility also emerged as a crucial operational requirement for continued success.

MPE decided to begin their automation journey by implementing a state-of-the-art, holistic semi-automated intralogistics solution to address these challenges while positioning themselves for future business growth in the competitive automotive components market.

Technical Solution

Mobile Racking System with AGVs

SSI Schaefer proposed and implemented a combined system solution consisting of mobile racking integrated with automated guided vehicles (AGVs). This solution was selected after MPE analyzed their logistics flows and requirements, identifying the need to maximize storage capacity while improving system performance.

Key Features

The mobile racking system combined with AGVs provides exceptional storage density, offering twice the capacity of traditional racking solutions within the same footprint while enabling efficient automated material handling.

Extended operational hours to 16 hours daily significantly improve MPE's ability to meet automotive industry delivery requirements, providing greater flexibility to respond to variable customer orders and tight production schedules.

The guaranteed FIFO storage method ensures optimal inventory management and product rotation, critical for automotive components where material traceability and proper stock rotation are essential quality requirements.

Results & Benefits

The automated warehouse delivers twice the storage capacity compared to traditional solutions, addressing MPE's primary requirement to maximize their storage capabilities while accommodating products from both production facilities.

Extended operational hours to 16 hours daily have improved delivery performance, allowing MPE to better meet the stringent requirements of their international automotive customers for reliability and punctuality.

Significant space and time savings have been achieved, creating capacity to accommodate further business growth while improving operational efficiency in the face of variable incoming orders characteristic of the automotive industry.

Challenges & Solutions

The need to maximize storage capacity while maintaining reliability, speed, and punctuality in automotive supply chain operations was addressed through the implementation of a mobile racking system with AGVs, providing doubled capacity and extended operational hours.

The challenge of variable incoming orders requiring flexibility was solved through the automated solution with FIFO guarantee, creating a responsive system capable of handling the order variability typical in automotive component supply.

System Integrator

SSI Schaefer served as the system integrator, winning MPE's confidence through their expertise and the proposed solution of mobile racking combined with AGVs. Their holistic approach to semi-automated intralogistics provided the comprehensive solution MPE needed to begin their automation journey. The successful implementation has positioned SSI Schaefer as MPE's first-choice partner for future automation projects, demonstrating the value of their expertise in automotive supply chain solutions.