Discipline 01
Mechanical design & production
3D design, machining and assembly in-house, including spare parts that are no longer manufactured. Led by Finn Hogstad, our first employee in 1996.
Intralogistics & automation · Kongsberg, Norway
If it fits in a box,
we can automate it.
Automated lines for picking, packing, sorting and returns. Designed, built and serviced by one engineering company in Kongsberg, Norway, for distributors, 3PLs, e-commerce and meal-kit operators.
- 1986
- Started in press distribution, where the deadline is every night.
- 16+
- Countries with HS lines in operation.
- 24/7/365
- Support by phone and remote access.
- 1 team
- Mechanics, electrics and software under one roof.
Why “News”?
We learned automation on the toughest night shift in logistics.
Press distribution means thousands of different items, new every day, all out the door before morning. That is where we started. Everything we learned there now handles meal kits, e-commerce orders, medicines and convenience goods.
The story behind the name
In 1986 Jon Hognestad started Media Craft to solve one problem: newspapers and magazines were packed and returned by hand, at night, with deadlines that never move. In 1995 he and systems engineer Rune Sletterød founded HS News Systems. H for Hognestad, S for Sletterød.
The name stayed. So did the standard.
The line
One box. Eight stations. One supplier.
Follow a box through a complete HS line. Start with one station and add the next when the numbers justify it. Every module is designed, built and programmed in Kongsberg.
Station 01 / 08 · Receive
Pallets and tote stacks in. One unit at a time out.
Incoming pallets are broken down and tote stacks are separated automatically, so the line is fed at a steady pace instead of in bursts.
- De-palletizer
- Tote de-stacker
In operationID Logistics, Benelux: automated de-palletising and de-stacking of totes at the head of a ten-station picking line.
Station 02 / 08 · Open
Seals off, lids up, contents out.
Security seals are removed and lids opened by the machine. The box tipper empties containers in a controlled way, so nobody has to bend over every tote.
- Seal remover & lid opener
- Box tipper
In operationStandard modules in HS returns and repacking lines.
Station 03 / 08 · Identify
Every item identified while it moves.
The singulator separates stacked items. Barcode, QR code or image recognition then identifies each one at speed and sends it to the right place.
- Singulator
- Image recognition
- Barcode & QR scanning
In operationCargoe, Austria: eight HS Returns machines identify and sort more than 47 million unsold copies a year.
Station 04 / 08 · Move
A flow that never waits and never floods.
Conveyors, merges and turners keep the boxes moving and buffer the flow between stations. Everything is modular, so the layout can grow with you.
- Conveyors
- Y-mix merge
- Box turner
- Tote stacker
In operationDNMH, Denmark: modular sortation that handles up to 6,000 units an hour.
Station 05 / 08 · Pick
Light shows what to pick. Or the robot picks it.
Pick-to-light stations show operators exactly what goes in the box and how many. For items that are hard to handle, our AI pick robot uses vision and vacuum grippers.
- Pick-to-light stations
- AI pick robot
- Wireless handheld control
In operationCheffelo, Oslo: an AI robot picks soft spice bags from 16 locations into meal-kit boxes.
Station 06 / 08 · Check
Wrong boxes stop here, not at the customer.
Every box is weighed and compared with what the order says it should weigh. Boxes that don’t match are pushed out to a correction station before the box is closed.
- Dynamic weight control
- Quality control stations
In operationUbiway, Belgium: convenience goods are weight-checked before the delivery note and the lid go on.
Station 07 / 08 · Close & label
Documents in, lid on, label applied. Per order, at line speed.
Delivery notes, invoices and personalised inserts are printed and put in each open box. Then lids are closed and shipping labels applied. Old labels can be removed automatically.
- Online document dispenser
- Label applicator
- Label remover
- Lid closer
In operationGodt Levert, Norway: personalised menus printed and put in at up to 1,400 boxes an hour.
Station 08 / 08 · Dispatch
Sorted by route, stacked to pattern, out the door.
Finished boxes are sorted by route and palletised in the correct stacking pattern, ready for the truck.
- Palletizer
- Route sortation
In operationID Logistics: outgoing goods are palletised for more than 5,000 points of sale.
01 / 08
Underneath every station
HS software connects the line to your business.
What the software does
Our own warehouse and distribution software controls replenishment, order priority and routes, and updates your ERP with every physical movement in real time. Our software, so we can change it when you need it changed.
- Warehouse & distribution management
- Order priority & production planning
- Warehouse route planner
- Hardware health monitor, 24/7
- Production statistics & analysis
- Interfaces to SAP and other ERP systems
Who we build for
Built for operations where the deadline is fixed.
Different goods, same pressure: more orders, fewer people, no room for errors.
- 01 E-commerce & parcelsOrder profiles change by the hour. Pick-to-light, weight control, automatic documents and labels. Running atCoolRunner, Denmark See solutions
- 02 Meal kits & freshHundreds of recipe variants, one delivery window. Menu printing and insertion, and AI picking of soft packaging. Running atCheffelo · Godt Levert · Adams Matkasse, Norway See solutions
- 03 3PL & contract logisticsNew client, new flow, same building. De-palletising, picking stations, palletising, WMS integration. Running atID Logistics, Benelux · Menzies Distribution, UK See solutions
- 04 Wholesale, kiosk & convenienceMixed goods, small quantities, thousands of stores. Lines that pick press and convenience goods side by side, with SAP integration. Running atUbiway (bpost group), Belgium · Lehtipiste, Finland See solutions
- 05 Press, media & returnsThe toughest night shift in logistics. Packing, sortation and HS Returns for unsold copies. Running atUBD & DNMH, Denmark · Cargoe, Austria · TNG, USA · Prologix, Canada See solutions
Documented results
Results with names on them.Numbers our customers have put their names to.
Read the full customer stories, with challenges, solutions and results.
- 1,400
- boxes an hourGodt Levert · NO
- 2×
- efficiency on returnsCargoe · AT
- 6,000
- units an hourDNMH · DK
- 5,000
- points of sale servedID Logistics · Benelux
“No one other than HS News managed to get the printers to do what we needed, to cooperate with the systems we already had.”
Operations Manager, Godt Levert Group
HS lines are running at
Ubiway · bpost group · Belgium
Upgrade, don’t replace
Built for magazines. Ready for anything in a box.Your line was built for magazines. It doesn’t have to stay that way.
HS lines are modular and we write our own software. So when your product mix changes, we adapt the line you have instead of recommending a new one.
How Ubiway did it
Ubiway adapted its HS press pick & pack line to also pick chocolate, soft drinks, bandages and other convenience goods. The goods go in cardboard boxes, with weight control, delivery notes and a direct connection to SAP.
Ask about upgrading your line“They know the market and suggest solutions payable in a difficult market.”
Geoffrey Degeest, COO, Ubiway
One company
Mechanics, electrics, software. One supplier.Mechanics, electrics and software. One building. One phone number.
No finger-pointing between a machine vendor and a software vendor. We design, build, wire, program and test everything in Kongsberg and Horten before it ships.
Discipline 02
Electrical & control
Control panels built to your specification. PLCs and sensors programmed by the team that designed the machine.
Discipline 03
Software, vision & machine learning
Warehouse software, image recognition and machine learning from Kongsberg and Horten, including the software behind our pick robot.
Service & support
When a line stops at 3 a.m., someone answers.
Right now it is --:-- in Kongsberg, and our support line is open. It always is.
- 24/7/365 phone & online support
- Secure VPN access to every line
- Service in NO, DE, UK and CA
- Spare parts, training, maintenance
Start here
Describe your flow. We’ll tell you how we’d automate it.
Tell us what moves through your building, how much of it, and where it hurts. No finished specification needed.
- Head office & manufacturing, Kongsberg
- +47 32 86 72 20enquiries@hsnews.no
- Sales, Reidar Kylstad (Borsdorf, DE)
- +49 172 9439511kylstad@hsnews.no
- Already running an HS line?
- Service & support, around the clock