Start of planning in 2018

The material flow concept of the new KION RDC CE combines permanently installed, fully automated systems - including a 30-meter-high high-bay warehouse, a multishuttle system and continuous conveyor technology - with flexible, mobile autonomous robots (AMRs) and manually operated industrial trucks. © Linde Material Handling

The considerations for a new, future-proof spare parts center began back in 2018. It quickly became clear to those responsible that the high efficiency and productivity requirements could best be met with the KION Group's own automation solutions. The location for the new building favoured by the company management, workforce and works council was just a few meters away from the existing hall complex.

Reference for process-optimized goods handling

AMRs from Linde MH ensure that transport axes in the distribution center can also be used by manual industrial trucks and people. © Linde Material Handling

For Linde MH and Dematic, the new hub for spare parts is not only a successful project, but also a reference example for the design of sophisticated material flow solutions with a high degree of automation. This is because it is a typical goods distribution center, as there are many of them in a wide variety of industries throughout Europe.

In the new KION RDC CE, incoming and outgoing goods are delivered via a total of 16 truck ramps. Small parts are packed into boxes and transported to the connected multishuttle via continuous conveyors. It has five 100-meter-long aisles with a total of 110,000 storage spaces and runs the entire length of the building. Full pallets and pallet cages reach the fully automated high-bay warehouse with 19,000 storage locations via conveyor technology, AMRs and a circulating electric floor conveyor (EBB) with 20 transport trolleys. It is 30 meters high and has six aisles with automatic storage and retrieval machines (SRMs). The small parts orders are picked and packed directly under the multishuttle. The order-specific compilation of the goods stored in the high-bay warehouse takes place at packing stations along the EBB. All processed orders are then transported to the dispatch area via continuous conveyors and lifting systems, where they are bundled according to the specific order. The dispatch area with outgoing goods is located in a separate hall. The special warehouse for particularly large or heavy spare part components is also located there. They are transported by manual industrial trucks from the incoming goods area directly to the transfer points in front of the 21-metre-high, nine-aisle narrow-aisle high-bay warehouse. There, semi-automatic combination vehicles (Linde K) take over the goods carriers.

Ensuring a fast supply of spare parts

Trucks are loaded and unloaded via a total of 16 ramps. © Linde Material Handling

The Linde sales partner network in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Ireland is supplied from the KION RDC CE - on request, the ordered components can be delivered overnight directly to the service technicians' customer service vehicles. The regional distribution centers in the Czech Republic, Spain and Sweden as well as local sites in Italy, France and the UK also receive goods from the well-connected distribution center. The primary objective is to ensure a fast, reliable supply of spare parts in order to guarantee short repair and maintenance times and thus ensure a high level of vehicle availability. The requirement is that almost 100 percent of all orders received by 5 p.m. are dispatched on the same day. Customers can also rely on receiving original spare parts over a long period of time: They are kept in stock for up to twelve years.

With the new building complex, the KION Group has not only set the tone in terms of planning, but has also taken sustainability into account: The building was constructed on existing, largely already sealed areas. Ecologically valuable sand and grassland areas were laid and supplemented by many other compensatory measures for nature and species conservation. At the same time, the requirements of the German Sustainable Building Council's (DGNB) Gold Standard were met: A PV system on the roof generates electricity and, in combination with a heat pump, heats the halls, rainwater is used as service water and roof water is discharged into the nearby lake and not into the sewage system.