New highly efficient storage and transportation system for Cathay Pacific Catering Services made in Germany

Cathay Pacific Catering Services boosting capacities by 40% 

CPCS is continuously expanding it's operations. In recent years, the company has set itself an ambitious development strategy and was planning to boost it's daily production capacity by 40%. This allows a production of 140.000 meals and handling 310 flights every day. To achieve this goal, it was necessary to upgrade the facilities in Hong Kong with new storage and transportation technology.  

In order to meet the self-imposed goals and the already increasing demand of the airlines, and due to previous construction delays and the resulting marginal space, Lödige Industries had to meet the requirements of CPCS precisely and in a shortened construction time. The project was especially challenging due to the fact that the space within the new facility was limited and a multi-level storage and transportation system was complicated to fit inside the premises. Lödige Industries did not only design a highly efficient tailor-made-solution, but also managed to finish the installations within a shorter period of time which was necessary due to delays during the construction of the building. The system installed includes vertical cart buffer towers with integrated chilling facilities, a high capacity bin transport and storage system with automatic loading and unloading of vertical bin buffers and a pallet handling system. In addition, Lödige’s integrated image recognition technology will remove the need for skilled operators in key areas of production, automatically identifying product as it leaves the ware wash facility and travels to storage.  

Furthermore, the project also includes a three-year-maintenance contract which ensures that operations are running smoothly and the desired throughput rates can be achieved. 
 

About Cathay Pacific Catering Services  

Cathay Pacific's wholly owned catering services division is an integral part of the airline's global operations. Drawing on over 48years of experience in the business, CPCS caters to 43 international airlines serving Hong Kong, producing an average of 75,000 meals a day and accounting for around 65% of the market. With a floor area of 50,400 square meters, the CPCS flight kitchen is Hong Kong's largest, and is also one of the world's most sophisticated. The business originated in the early 1960s with Air Caterers Limited, a successful joint venture between Swire and Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels of The Peninsula Hotel fame. The operation is now wholly owned by the airline. 

Biggest challenges for Cathay Pacific Catering Services

• Cathay Pacific was struggling with several limitations which made an expansion of their throughput and production capacities much more complicated.
• First of all, there was only marginal space for the handling system, especially considering it needed to be a multi-level system.
• Furthermore, the time in which a new system could be implemented was shorting due to building delays at the main facility.

Solution and benefits for this project

• Lödige Industries managed to provide Cathay Pacific with a tailor-made solution
• In turn Lödige was able to not only finish the project in time, but also provides the customer with an upgrade that is able to fulfill all desired requirements.
• This was made possible by extensive on-site coordination and a supply of additional resources.