"Operational excellence is a maxim to which Bachem AG is committed. Consequently, the company also attaches great importance to quality and innovation - both in production and in logistics. "The project task was to construct a warehouse building in the central area of the company premises with maximum feasible storage capacity. In addition to storage rooms for specific storage classes (e.g. acids or alkalis) or storage conditions (e.g. cold storage cells), we opted for two fully automated high-bay warehouses - one each for solids and liquids. These make it possible to store products in accordance with the qualified conditions of the pharmaceutical guidelines, to quarantine them, to release them and to store a maximum number of products in the space available to us with a minimum of personnel, explains Oliver Tretzack, Project Manager at Bachem. As liquids with a low flash point are stored in the high-bay warehouse, explosion protection requirements were also placed on the equipment.

Convincing references
Stöcklin Logistik AG was awarded the contract for implementation. "The decisive factor in awarding the contract was a large number of automated reference systems that have been operating successfully in the pharmaceutical industry for years, some of them in potentially explosive atmospheres," says Hans D. Koch, the responsible project manager at the Swiss intralogistics system provider.
provider. The latter also had to be taken into account when building the liquid storage system. In addition to the Machinery Directive, both the requirements of the Explosion Protection Directive and the regulations of the EMC Directive, which is aimed at the electromagnetic compatibility of equipment, had to be met.

Lean and secure processes thanks to automation
After the contract was awarded in May 2017, the new complete system was accepted in October 2018 and put into productive operation. In the solids warehouse, where less critical goods are stored than in the liquids warehouse, a MASTer-18T pallet stacker crane, which is designed for double-deep transverse storage and serves 468 storage locations, operates over a length of 20.4 meters. A single-motor 2-prong telescopic fork ensures that the pallets can be stored on top-hat profiles to save space. The storage and retrieval machine (SRM) is designed for loads of up to 600 kilograms.

Collected pallets are fed in at the front via a feed roller conveyor and conveyed to a turnstile. © Stöcklin Logistics

The conveyor connection of the high-bay warehouse (HBW) for solids is designed identically on the first floor and the second floor. Pallets to be stored are loaded lengthwise onto a hydraulic output lifting device using a hand pallet truck and the labels are scanned by the operator. The load carriers are then lifted to conveyor level and conveyed through a profile check to the turnstile. The weight is measured and recorded there. If these parameters are correct, the load carriers are lifted, rotated by 90° and conveyed to the high-bay warehouse. During onward transportation to the high-bay warehouse, the fully enclosed hygiene pallets pass through a high-speed fire protection door and are picked up by the stacker crane at the transfer point. They are retrieved in the same way using the same conveyor elements. The turnover rate is 30 pallets per hour on average. The system is operated over a period of twelve hours, five days a week.

Explosion protection requirements covered throughout
The liquid storage system is also designed for exactly this throughput capacity, although a number of restrictions had to be taken into account. As a result, the system was designed to comply with the provisions of the Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC), the Explosion Protection Directive (2014/34/EU) and the EMC Directive (2014/30/EU). "The storage and retrieval machine in use there was designed in explosion protection zone 2 in the floor area, from the floor to a height of two meters," reports Koch. It was also designed in accordance with temperature class 4. Another explosion protection zone is located in the pre-zone of the high-bay warehouse on the first floor, from the floor to a height of one meter. In this area, the drives as well as the sensors and the profile control had to be explosion-proof. In addition, the decentralized electrical cabinet, control panels and the drive motor for the door located in the liquid material area were installed above the explosion protection zone.

The 260 pallet bays in the liquid storage facility are accessed by a 17.7-metre-high MASTer 24-DT storage and retrieval machine designed for loads of up to 1,400 kilos with a fixed 2-prong telescopic fork for single-deep storage. Chemical pallets and Euro pallets are used as load carriers. The load consists of intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) of various height classes made of steel or polyethylene, which are placed centrally on the pallets. This ensures an even load distribution. A special feature is that type 1 IBC containers (1,245 x 840 mm) with a maximum weight of 1,400 kilograms can also be conveyed without under-palletizing. However, type 2 in steel (1,220 x 1,020 mm) and type 3 in polyethylene (1,200 x 1,000 mm), each with a capacity of 1,000 liters, are transported under-palletized.

Inventory management and material flow control
The conveyor connection of the HBW specially designed for liquids was implemented on the first floor. This means that pallets supplied in the incoming goods area can be loaded onto a chain conveyor with rigid pallet centering for three different pallet types using electric forklifts. The width of the respective pallet is then measured and the dimensions of the load, the pallet cavity and the weight of the load carrier are checked. If there is no error, it is moved and transported to the high-bay warehouse for storage.

Software sets the pace
The StöcklinWMS (Warehouse Management System) with the integrated StöcklinWCS module (Warehouse Control System), which is connected to SAP WM via an interface, practically sets the pace for the new central warehouse. It manages stocks at high-bay warehouse level from goods receipt to goods issue. Batches, expiration dates and serial numbers are also taken into account. The material flow computer, which is equipped with a visualization system, controls the entire material flow, taking daily requirements into account.

Fire protection concept implemented
"Fire protection was also an issue that should not be underestimated, especially in the case of Bachem," adds Hans D. Koch. Both the solids and liquids storage facilities have been equipped with escape routes and sprinklers in the racking. In addition, Stöcklin has installed three high-speed fire protection doors. These were equipped with an emergency power battery pack. With the construction of the new central warehouse, Bachem has brought together the intralogistics processes required for the proper handling of pharmaceutical precursors and active ingredients under one roof and further optimized them from a safety perspective. "The fully automated system solution implemented for the timely and demand-oriented supply of production meets our expectations and Stöcklin also met the agreed deadline", emphasizes Bachem project manager Oliver Tretzack. "The new high-bay warehouse supports our growth strategy and will help us to further expand our leading global position in the peptide market."