Störtebeker Braumanufaktur is a true German northern light - and is gradually conquering the whole of Germany from its base in Stralsund. The brewery combines tradition with innovation: it focuses equally on classic styles and specialty beers and also offers part of its portfolio as organic and non-alcoholic products.
The name "Störtebeker" is associated with the infamous pirate Klaus Störtebeker, especially in German-speaking countries. According to legend, he made the North and Baltic Seas unsafe in the 14th century. Nowadays, numerous literary and musical works still reminisce about the seafarer's adventures, but he has competition - from Stralsund. Instead of "Ahoy" at sea, it's now "Full speed ahead" - but this time on the German beer market. When Jürgen Nordmann took over the Stralsund brewery after German reunification in 1991, it mainly brewed for the local market. However, Nordmann was aware of the potential of his brewery - and decided to completely realign it in 2012. In addition to a new name, this 180-degree turnaround also included a stringent brand concept and an expansion of the existing portfolio.

"Klaus Störtebeker is said to have had a strong character, he is said to have been trusting and courageous. We also embody precisely these values - and that's why we chose the name Störtebeker," explains Jürgen Nordmann. "Our beers are very full of character: Atlantik-Ale, for example, is based on five different types of malt and hops as well as our own top-fermenting yeast." This approach has been well received by German beer fans: within just eight years, Störtebeker Braumanufaktur has increased its output from 60,000 to a good 300,000 hectolitres and now sells its beers in food retailers almost throughout Germany, as well as in restaurants in northern Germany. "The momentum is incredibly high. And although we are also occasionally represented in Sweden and Switzerland, our focus is primarily on the German market. We have now made a name for ourselves here as a national specialty brand from the north," says the brewery boss.

Overall responsibility for filling, intralogistics and IT
However, in order to achieve this goal, Störtebeker had no choice but to invest in the existing production landscape. Following the expansion of capacity in the brewhouse in 2016, the decision was made to increase output in bottling and optimize logistics processes at the same time. To this end, Störtebeker acquired a 40,000 square meter site right next to the existing company headquarters and was able to realize the vision of a greenfield project there. However, for the brewery with just 110 employees, this project was a real mammoth undertaking. "We therefore decided to place the entire new building in the hands of two contractual partners: on the one hand our hall constructor, and on the other Krones as the main contractor responsible for the technology," explains Jürgen Nordmann. "If you have the opportunity to build on a greenfield site today, it's important not to ignore key drivers such as digitalization and green building." The scope of delivery therefore included an energy-efficient filling line from Krones, a fully automated high-bay warehouse from System Logistics and the networking of the entire production process with solutions from Syskron and Triacos.

Ten breweries in one
The main task was to streamline the complex work processes and make production more efficient: "I always say: 'We have ten breweries in one here on the site', because each of our beers comes in its own, variety-specific crate," describes Jürgen Nordmann. "This is an incredibly complex planning and production process that hardly anyone else in the world does in the returnable sector." In addition to the individual crates, Störtebeker also offers its beers in sealed six-packs. It quickly becomes clear: 25 varieties, each with two bottle sizes in two different containers, mean a wide variety of options for the consumer, but a complexity for production and logistics that needs to be mastered.

Having an overview of all stocks and processes in the warehouse is therefore essential for Störtebeker: "We have an incredibly high level of dynamism on the farm and in the warehouse. Empties, beer and filling capacities must be recorded at a glance in order to be able to plan the upcoming production properly," explains Jürgen Nordmann. Störtebeker therefore decided to have its existing SAP system adapted to the new production landscape by Syskron subsidiary Triacos and to link it with various MES IT solutions from Syskron. This enabled the brewery to optimally coordinate orders, business processes and production planning.
"We considered the topic of Industry 4.0 at an early stage and looked for suitable partners. With this investment, we have now taken another significant step in this direction and hope to be well positioned for the future."

Holistic logistics concept
The entire internal logistics system was designed and implemented by Krones' wholly-owned subsidiary System Logistics GmbH. In addition to a fully automated high-bay warehouse with 30,000 double-deep storage locations, several manual storage areas for finished goods, production supply and order picking with around 4,500 storage locations, as well as various transport and conveyor technologies were installed by the intralogistics experts from Wackersdorf. The high-bay warehouse is operated by six stacker cranes with simple load handling devices and will be expanded to eight stacker cranes in a further expansion stage. An electric floor conveyor connects the production area with the high-bay warehouse as well as the empties sorting and goods issue areas.
Thanks to an interface to the camera system for identifying the empties, fully automatic storage and transfer to a separate sorting area takes place. The stacks of empty pallets are automatically inspected by a pallet inspection station and stored or fed into the recycling process. In addition, an area for display construction with automatic provision is connected to the high-bay warehouse and the adjacent manual storage areas.

Due to the large number of different containers and crates, empties are also temporarily stored in the HBW alongside ready-to-sell containers and fed into production. "There is actually more movement here than storage," says Jürgen Nordmann. "Around 4,000 pallets are moved every day - an incredible number when you consider that we previously covered everything with forklift trucks." The fact that the high-bay warehouse and production are located wall to wall in the same building ensures short distances and enables maximum automation of the logistics processes. The dispatch area is also connected to the high-bay warehouse via an electric floor conveyor and has 24 dispatch lanes divided into four dispatch gates. Picking takes place in the manual warehouse, with replenishment being controlled automatically.

The warehouse control system developed by System Logistics maps the entire supply chain and is optimally integrated into the overall IT solution. In addition to a significant increase in overall system efficiency, this enables, for example, optimized production control and connection to the laboratory, information and management system. Thanks to optimized loading, individual loading patterns are generated depending on the truck and order and the pallets are transferred to the shipping lane as efficiently as possible, taking into account the loading method, lifting width and unloading sequence for the end customer.

The design, planning, implementation and commissioning of a project of this complexity and scale were completed in a very short space of time. "Thanks to extensive in-house testing under realistic conditions, commissioning was extremely efficient and time-saving. This also ensures an extremely high standard of quality," explains Ralf John, Head of Technical Operations at System Logistics. "Thanks to the perfect integration of hardware, automation technology and IT, we were able to implement a comprehensively digitalized value chain in line with Industry 4.0, giving Störtebeker Braumanufaktur one of the most modern breweries in the world."

A complete solution from a single source
"When we signed the contract with Krones in 2017, it was important to us that Krones not only supplied the bottling line, but that the order also included the intralogistics with the high-bay warehouse, the customizing services for SAP and the SitePilot solutions for automation," summarizes Jürgen Nordmann. "Because as a medium-sized company, we need a partner who takes on overall responsibility - both now and later for after-sales service."