Established in 1979 and now recognised as the largest continental haulier in Europe and one of the top four transport companies in Ireland, Dixon International Logistics specialises in temperature-controlled logistics across industries ranging from food to pharma and retail. The company stores products in both ambient and chilled temperatures.

Faced with some highly complex storage requirements, Dixon collaborated with Moffett Automation to roll out a highly-advanced solution in their Dublin-based warehousing facility. It was essential that this sophisticated approach would efficiently manage a broad range of products stored and processed by Dixon.

This project went over and beyond the basic objective of enhancing storage density for Dixon International Logistics. Aside from that, this project was about connecting neighbouring areas of an existing warehouse, with comprehensive warehouse redesign required before progressing to the next steps.

Dixon required a solution that would connect two existing storage chambers together so that a pallet could be transported to either chamber. This would require pallets at the top level to be strategically positioned in accordance to the angle of the roof to ensure maximum storage capacity of the building.

Ensuring the use of PPT (Powered Pallet Trucks) to be used for both inbounding and outbounding pallets required Dixon to consider a major redesign of the groundworks of their warehouse. To achieve this, our customer was faced with an additional challenge of lowering the levelling of the floor, with the need for conveyors to be positioned within the lowered section.

Additionally, Dixon required an inspection area, giving them the ability to bring clients and customers to view the system, calling down their client’s specific pallets for inspection. The beams of the rack would be painted in an off-white colour, with all components being painted with Dixon’s established brand colours. This was all to be achieved within a large space ‘black box’ storage space, with a requirement to operate behind closed doors and without the use of lights.

The storage capacity of this warehousing facility was doubled, now accommodating over 46,000 pallets. Dixon was also granted the opportunity to further scale their business in future by implementing additional Moffett Taxis™. This came with a significant reduction on manual handling and labour costs, with only two operators required at any one time. The system is also designed with built-in redundancy, meaning that if there is a fault on a specific route, the Taxis™ can take an alternative route and reduce any potential downtime.

High levels of safety were employed across virtually all areas of the warehouse by implementing safety wires throughout the racking structure above ground level, with vertical wires installed on the access ladders. The need for personnel to work at heights was also eliminated, removing all risks associated with working on elevated areas.

The safety benefits don’t end there. With the elimination of forklifts, Dixon International Logistics were able to remove all risks associated with the operation. Meanwhile, the risk of injury was further reduced by our system, which eliminated worker’s exposure to moving pallets. From a sustainability standpoint, Dixon’s implementation of our automated solution yielded significant benefits. The project aligned with Moffett Automation’s goal of achieving maximum efficiency and sustainability thanks to Dixon’s independent solar power generation working in conjunction with our system.

Dixon International Logistics have achieved a storage capacity of over 46000 pallets and a throughput of over 250 pallets per hour combined across both chambers. Our client reported high satisfaction:

“Within our warehouse we have 20 Moffett Taxis, which operate on a 24-hour basis and are very energy efficient. Because of its increased efficiency plus the efficiency of our cooler system it allows us to run the entire facility by using just the solar power generated from the solar panels on the roof of the warehouse, giving us a NET 0 energy facility.”