IAG Cargo integrates automation at LHR facility

IAG Cargo , the cargo division of International Airlines Group , has integrated warehouse management and mechanical handling automation at its new cargo handling facility at London Heathrow Airport . [caption id="attachment_57136931" align="alignright" width="300"] IAG Cargo’s New Premia facility at London Heathrow Airport has 11 landside doors, up from two at its previous facility. (Photo/IAG Cargo)[/caption] The 10,000-square-meter New Premia facility opened last month to serve as IAG Cargo’s new home for handling premium loose shipments, enabling double the amount of cargo to be managed daily. To accommodate the increase in capacity, significant focus has been given to designing IT systems and implementing integration to regulate freight movements and allocations inside the facility. “The old facility was primarily a very manual facility in terms of how the freight was handled, and the actual square footage was sort of smaller than what we have in the new facility,” David Rose , director of London operations for IAG Cargo, told Air Cargo Next . The facility is integrated with IAG Cargo’s existing warehouse management system. “Our warehouse management system, which is the system so a piece of software can effectively look at all of the freight that we have and decide how and when we should build the freight and how we should move around the facility, is now fully integrated with our physical mechanical handling system,” Rose said. The integrated system allows the management system to determine what cargo needs to be moved, then communicate that to the handling system, which can pull the cargo for pallet building. “It’s really great from an efficiency perspective and also helps us with how the building runs,” Rose said. “Now, rather than building all of our freight by flights, we build it by unit. So, if there’s enough freight to build one unit of cargo for a flight that’s not departing for 12 hours, between the warehouse management system and the mechanical handling system, [the facility’s system] has the intelligence to identify that and start to put all the necessary movements in place for us to start that build on that particular unit.” Keeping pharma frosty The temperature-controlled building includes a constant climate quality center for pharmaceuticals , with 29 dedicated cool cells and temperature facilities, able to range in temperatures from 25 degrees C to –20 degrees C. The facility is certified under a Good Distribution Practice Wholesale Distribution Authorization license issued by the United Kingdom’s Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency . “We have three different dedicated cold cells, all of which have their own build-and-break workstations,” Rose said. By using advanced constant climate technology, Rose said, IAG Cargo will be better able to “service the ever-growing pharmaceutical market,” adding that the company’s “ability to do so within the new facility is even better than what it was before.” “It’s automated through from the drop-off point on the airside side of the facility through to the constant climate area,” Rose said. “There’s automation from the very start .” The facility features 11 landside doors, an upgrade from two at the previous facility, and 20 break-and-build stations, served by four large transfer vehicles. These vehicles pass through rapid-rise doors, allowing cargo to be moved autonomously through the facility and into storage in advance of collection and delivery to the aircraft for exports. The process works in reverse for imports. “I think [New Premia] represents a real change for us, from old to new, both in terms of it as a new facility, but it’s also a completely new way of working,” Rose said. “I think it will really prep us for the future.” Join Air Cargo Next for the second Air Cargo Tech Summit on Monday, Sept. 18, and Tuesday, Sept. 19, at the Brussels Marriott Hotel Grand Place in Belgium. For more information on the summit and to register, click here .

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