Customized textile management

Founded in 1908, Mechanische Weberei Altstadt, or MEWA for short, produced reusable cotton cleaning cloths for cleaning dirty machines. In addition to the product range of cleaning cloths, oil collecting mats and doormats, MEWA now supplies companies with full-service workwear and protective clothing from 44 locations across Europe. In 2015, the entire group achieved a turnover of 612 million euros.

MEWA in Lauenburg: New building 2014

In order to continue to meet the growing demand for workwear care, a new company building was constructed at the Lauenburg site in northern Germany in 2014. The new washing lines are up to 14 meters long and weigh 19 tons. The Technical Managing Director, Rolf Lausmann: "Our entire washing and drying technology is leading in the industry and guarantees more efficient and environmentally friendly work." High-performance conveyor and sorting technology transports the workwear on overhead conveyors through the entire care process. At the beginning, the clothing is transparently recorded in IT-controlled systems using barcode scanners. The seamstresses wait at ergonomic workstations to mend the garments if necessary. "Finishers" dry and smooth the clothing. The workwear is then placed on overhead conveyors for weekly delivery. "As the largest employer in the region, we have almost doubled our capacity in the new building with the MEWA workwear facility," says Rolf Lausmann.

Modern fabric roll storage

Around 20,000 items are washed and processed at MEWA every day. Defective garments are sorted out and repaired. The rolls of fabric for the patches are stored in a computer-controlled Hänel Lean-Lift in the sewing room. Rolf Lausmann: "The Lean-Lift with vertical technology makes maximum use of the entire hall height up to the ceiling and, thanks to the height-optimized storage, the entire space. In this way, the floor space without maneuvering space for the steel stands with the fabric rolls was reduced from 40 to 6 m2!"

Intra says: Exemplary

When I read through the user report from workwear manufacturer MEWA, I can't help but grin: such a great, order-creating Hänel system would certainly do no harm in the editorial department of Materialfluss and LT-manager - not to mention the issue of colleagues' clothing styles. When will editors be required to wear overalls?

19 containers are equipped with special holders for storing four rolls of fabric in a row. Nine containers, on the other hand, have special holders for three fabric rolls each for thicker fabrics. With the integrated storage location management of the Hänel lift control system, each fabric roll is systematically recorded with the corresponding depth compartment on the containers. "In the manual warehouse, we first had to search for and find the right fabric roll for a repair order. With over a hundred rolls of fabric, the Hänel Lean-Lift now provides a clear overview," remarks the MEWA Managing Director.

Convenient and systematic provision

Each seamstress has a certain number of patches of each fabric color. If the minimum stock level is reached at the respective workstation, a replenishment order is triggered immediately and delivered to the operator at the lean lift. With the article pool management, article data can also be entered at the terminal without specifying the storage location. Data that has already been transferred does not have to be entered again. Conversely, the fabric rolls are searched for and found by entering order or article numbers, storage locations or fabric types with the corresponding information in the additional data fields.

At the removal point, the fabrics can be unrolled on the container, measured and cut with scissors. The patches are then punched out and fed to the seamstresses. When the minimum stock of fabric on a roll is reached, this is displayed on the Hänel control system and an order is triggered in the SAP host system on the workstation PC. This is indicated by a card fixed to the side of the removal point. All data is stored in the movement journal for feedback to the SAP host system. "We are currently still operating the vertical lift as a stand-alone solution. However, with its interface, the Hänel Lean-Lift can be integrated into our SAP host system," summarizes Rolf Lausmann. The Lean-Lift with the fabric rollers was customized by Hänel for MEWA for the alterations and repairs of defective garments. The footprint of the manual fabric roll warehouse was reduced to 15 percent. And with the article pool management in Hänel's WMS, the search for the right fabric roll was also ended.

Gerd Knehr