Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) has launched its integrated automation and barrel handling system in its Barossa Valley winery.
The end-to-end automation features nine driverless forklifts, a custom barrel management software system, automated barrel washing and filling facilities, and individual barrel identification.
The process currently runs 24 hours a day, five days a week, and is expected to boost the red wine handling capacity of the hall to 125,000 barrels.
The $10 million investment expands the site’s production capacity by up to 60 percent and enhances traceability of the barrels across their lifecycle, while also reducing energy consumption and creating a safer working environment by minimising manual handling tasks.
The driverless forklifts, known as autonomous guided vehicles, are controlled by a customised digital barrel management system developed with digital technology company Nukon, part of the SAGE Group.
This enables the wine producer’s international winemaking team to control the system remotely to move barrels through the maturation process.
Integrating these components in an end-to-end automated system makes this a world-first in winemaking, bolstering the Barossa Valley’s credentials as one of Australia’s most innovative winemaking regions.
Kerrin Petty, Chief Supply & Sustainability Officer, said, “Our Barossa Valley site is fast becoming an international hub of innovation in winemaking, sustainability and resilience.
“Introducing full automation in our barrel hall increases our luxury and premium winemaking capacity, so we can craft more of our renowned wines for wine lovers around the world while creating a safer working environment for our people.”
This automation optimises how team members are allocated in the barrel hall, and the site’s forklift operators have either been reskilled to operate the digital barrel management system and manage the new automated vehicles, or moved on to other roles at the site.
The laser-guided forklifts in the 35,000 square metre barrel hall have been tailored to the particular characteristics of the site by Italy-based automation provider E80 Group.
The enhanced data and analytics in the automated end-to-end system create greater traceability and improved quality for the site’s 60,000 barrels of wine across brands including Penfolds, Pepperjack and Saltram.
Modern, lithium battery powered vehicles, powered by 100 percent renewable electricity contributes to TWE’s goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2030.
Director of Supply Technology Jodie Rowlands said, “We’ve seen improvements in safety, efficiency and traceability in our barrel hall, with the team on site embracing the new way of working.
“The efficiency and precision of automated, sensor-based forklifts to transport the barrels lowers energy consumption compared to manual handling processes.”
Project planning and trials started in late 2020, with the integrated system commissioned and fully operational in June this year.
The state-of-the-art Barossa Valley facility opened in 2022 after a $165 million extension that expanded the production and storage facilities by a third, making it the winemaker’s largest bottling operation globally.
Since then, the site has been enhanced with more than 6,000 solar panels that produce up to a quarter of its electricity needs, together with a wastewater treatment plant and stormwater capture that feeds a nearby 254-megalitre lined dam.
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