The solution, consisting of an automated small parts warehouse and autonomous mobile robots, will offer Liebherr-Mining more flexibility in the supply of workstations and a high storage density while maintaining the existing infrastructure.

At the Colmar site, Liebherr-Mining manufactures large hydraulic excavators for use in opencast mining. All parts required for final assembly and spare parts delivery, including small parts, are stored in the existing pallet high-bay warehouse. In order to supply the workstations flexibly and automatically and to make maximum use of the available storage space, Knapp was commissioned to implement a new small parts warehouse. "We opted for the Knapp system because the ideas are innovative, flexible and trend-setting in the industry. The project work was structured and always focused on offering an individual solution and implementing our wishes," says Manfred Gast, Vice President Manufacturing at Liebherr-Mining in Colmar.

Automated picking and storage system in combination with autonomous mobile robots

The new solution will comprise the OSR Shuttle Evo picking and storage system, three ergonomic workstations from the Pick-it-Easy series, four decanting workstations and the flexible Open Shuttles, which connect the goods receiving area with the new small parts warehouse fully automatically. In triple-deep storage, 23,500 storage locations are to be realized in one aisle on 37 levels. The existing pallet high-bay warehouse will remain fully operational. The new small parts warehouse will store all parts fully automatically with a very high storage density and deliver them to the workstations using the goods-to-person principle. For Manfred Gast, the new solution is forward-looking: "With this investment, Liebherr is laying the foundation for a further increase in productivity in intra-logistics in order to guarantee our customers the best possible service for spare parts and production logistics."

The KiSoft software package from Knapp is the brain of the solution. It will be connected to the customer system via an interface, controls the fleet of Open Shuttles and manages storage and retrieval in the small parts warehouse as well as supplying the workstations. The KiSoft SCADA software will be responsible for visualizing the system status, thus ensuring a complete overview and maximum availability.

The planned system will support Liebherr-Mining in three basic processes - incoming and outgoing goods and order picking. In incoming goods, the fleet of Open Shuttles will transport the small parts from the decentralized incoming goods workstations to the new storage system. The Open Shuttles are integrated into the internal forklift traffic. The goods are then stored centrally in the OSR Shuttle Evo. If the parts are required in production or as spare parts, they are retrieved to the picking workstations. At the ergonomic workstations of the Pick-it-Easy series, the small parts are fed using the goods-to-person principle and picked into bins. After successful picking, the bins travel via the conveyor system to the consolidation zone, where the goods from the pallet warehouse are brought together with the small parts and then transported to the production lines or as spare parts for dispatch. If required, the picked order bins can also be temporarily stored again in the OSR Shuttle Evo. The new automation solution is scheduled to go live in February 2024.