The maximum weight that a sack of flour can have in France has fallen from 40 to 25 kilograms. This brought the Moulins Bourgeois family mill to the limit of its ability to deliver. Because with the same scope of delivery, around twice as many flour sacks had to be packed, transported, and loaded. The company, therefore, relies on automation with KUKA robots.
French flour for baguettes, flatbreads and biscuits
Bourgeois – this name has stood for flour of the highest quality since 1895. “We have been working as independent mill operators for four generations,” says General Manager Julien Bourgeois. The company’s headquarters have been in Verdelot, 80 kilometers east of Paris, for 80 years. Conventionally grown and organic flour from Moulins Bourgeois is exported to Germany, Norway, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, China and Brazil, among others.
In the 2010s, Moulin Bourgeois built a new mill, with improved hygiene precautions and almost doubling the production capacity. But soon after, a new French regulation posed challenges for the company. The regulations were intended to reduce the physical strain on mill employees. Flour sacks were now allowed to weigh a maximum of 25 kilograms. Julien and David Bourgeois, who are the fourth generation to run the family business, needed a solution.
From hard physical work to a fully automated distribution center
“We had to switch from 40-kilogram flour sacks to 25-kilogram flour sacks,” reports Julien Bourgeois. “This was good news for our employees because it reduced the heavy physical work. But we have had to practically double the number of bags we load into our trucks every day from the previous 7,000. That was completely impossible.”
To date, six employees have been responsible for palletizing and loading the flour sacks. This hard physical work could not be accelerated indefinitely. In order to protect the team from overload and to continue to be able to fulfill all orders, the company decided to invest in a fully automated distribution center. The employees, however, kept their jobs – on the loading level they now ensure that every bag arrives in the right truck and is safely stowed there.
Fast and successful
In 2014, the go-ahead was given for the 100 percent automated “goods-to-truck” solution with five KUKA robots. The new distribution center opened in September 2015. The order preparation is completely automated – from the receipt of the pallets in the warehouse to the transport of the sacks to the truck. The five robots from KUKA take over the entire picking process – 2,000 bags are processed per hour. The bags are pre-sorted so that they arrive on the truck in the right order for the delivery route.
The family business delivers up to 170 tons of flour every day. The annual turnover rose from 40 million euros in 2015 to 50 million euros in 2020. And the Bourgeois brothers are happy to have 150 satisfied employees and one of the most efficient and modern production facilities for flour in Europe.
“By making the change, we have managed to load 60 percent more flour sacks and reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders and injuries to our employees,” said Julien Bourgeois. “We have grown as a company, have a much greater demand and therefore more employees overall than before.”
This content was first posted on the KUKA website.
