Pallet racks and Pallet Shuttle in the new Genta warehouse in Italy

About Genta S.n.c.

This Italian company specializes in the storage and transportation of empty bottles and bottled beverages. It was founded in 1945, boasting many years of experience as a transportation company.

Genta S.n.c. offers its customers the opportunity to monitor their entire supply chain, beginning with efficient warehouse management. It is responsible for identifying products, storing them for as long as needed, dispatching them and sending them to the end customers.

The new warehouse

The company has just opened a new distribution center measuring just under 10 acres in the Italian town of Santa Vittoria d'Alba, in the north of the country. From there, explains Domenico Genta, owner of Genta S.n.c., “We supply all our customers in Italy and the rest of the world by intermodal transportation.” This warehouse is designed for alcoholic beverage storage and receives a staggering 2,500 to 3,000 pallets a day.

According to Domenico Genta, “We wanted to have this quantity of products under control at all times to prevent any mistakes.” Not to mention that speed was also a priority, as the company wanted to cope with this entire workload in the shortest possible time.

With this in mind, Interlake Mecalux equipped the warehouse with four blocks of high-density racking with the semi-automatic Pallet Shuttle system. According to Domenico Genta, this solution “has improved the management of warehouse spaces, allowing us to leverage the building's height.” The size of the racks is substantial: 33' high, with five levels, and 92' long. Pallet racks have been installed right next to them. The two systems make maximum use of the available surface area to provide capacity for 7,075 pallets.

Domenico Genta - Owner of Genta S.n.c.
“When it came to equipping our warehouse, it was very clear to us that we needed the support of a company as professional as Mecalux. They are leaders in the design, manufacture, and installation of storage systems, and the result has been hugely successful. We found what we were looking for.”

Advantages of the Pallet Shuttle system

“This system has minimized operator maneuvering times,” points out Domenico Genta. The reason is that they do not enter the lanes to handle the goods. Instead, the shuttle executes the movements automatically.

The operators, using reach trucks, place the motorized shuttle in the corresponding channel and insert the pallets in the first position on the racks. The Pallet Shuttle then moves the pallets straight to the next location.

While the Pallet Shuttle moves and positions the pallet, the operator uses the time to find another pallet and place it in the first position of the corresponding channel. So, when the shuttle returns to the beginning of the channel, the same movement is repeated seamlessly. The same operation is carried out to remove the goods, but in reverse order.

The goods are slotted into one side of the block of racks and are extracted from the opposite side. With this system, goods are managed according to the FIFO (first in-first out) principle, i.e., the first pallet to enter is the first to leave. “This solution ensures perfect product rotation.”

Advantages for Genta S.n.c.

• Surface usage: the racks are 33' high and 92' long, providing increased storage in a very ample space.
• Efficient distribution of goods: the Pallet Shuttle system organizes goods stringently according to the FIFO criterion.
• Agile operations: the Pallet Shuttle manages daily inflows of between 2,500 and 3,000 pallets.