Arla Foods welcomed BBC Breakfast this week to learn how the dairy cooperative is using cutting-edge production methods to maximise the output of milk for its 12,500 owners, circa 3,000 of whom are British.
Steph McGovern, Business Presenter at BBC Breakfast spent the morning in the despatch facility at Aylesbury, which, at full capacity is the world’s largest fresh milk dairy. She spoke with Arla’s Supply Chain Development Director, Tim Evans, who explained how the wi-fi controlled automatically guided vehicles (AGVs) help distribute millions of litres of milk a day.
Tim also described how the 90 AGVs clock up around 15km around Aylesbury each day, ensuring Aylesbury maximises the production of milk at the site, meaning it gets to consumers faster.
Arla’s Gary Fay, Despatch Senior Technician, explained to Steph that the robots have built-in satellite navigation so they know how to get around the dispatch and avoid colliding into anything or anyone. The visit was part of a week-long feature the BBC was running on artificial intelligence and robotics.
External guests included Grant Collier from theProcessing and Packaging Machinery Association, and Mike Aldridge from Dyson, both explained that the UK still lags behind globally with regard to the use of automation in work but procedures are rapidly changing.
Aylesbury, which opened in May 2014, represents Arla's largest ever single investment and has cutting-edge environmental credentials which will help it become zero carbon.
Commenting on the visit, Jo Taylor, Site Director, said:
"We are delighted that we were able to show viewers how our Aylesbury dairy was designed to use cutting edge innovation to help create a sustainable future for the UK dairy. It enables us to process more milk, which helps drive more benefits back to our farmer owners.”