The name Wawa is well known throughout the mid-Atlantic states. Its dairy convenience stores are seemingly on every major thoroughfare, and with 400 million customers annually, it presents a serious logistics challenge to keep the stores stocked. Nowhere is this challenge more critical than with the warehousing and distribution of its fresh liquid milk products. Few consumer food products require more demanding time and temperature controls from production through warehousing and distribution to their arrival on retailers’ shelves than dairy products. Fresh liquid milk must be distributed within days, and some of Wawa’s milk products are moved through its distribution center and shipped within a few hours after being filled and packaged.
The need for automation
Achieving this speed of throughput became increasingly more difficult for Wawa as its business continued to expand. The company added more new stores, and its manually-operated chilled warehouse ran out of room. Its production outpaced its storage capacity. The company’s products were now being produced, staged on the warehouse floor and quickly shipped to make room for milk, teas and juices that were newly coming off the line. The distribution center’s storage space surpassed maximum capacity, and it ran out of space on the floor to stage products.