In the new warehouse at the Roggwil site of RWD Schlatter AG, which specializes in carpentry and functional doors, picking doors and frames now only requires a single employee. At the previous location, two people were required for this process, as this step was still carried out with a front forklift at the time. "To fulfill the orders, the required doors had to be lifted from the shelves pallet by pallet, placed in the aisle and picked up one by one," recalls Matthias Tabak, who works at RWD Schlatter as Group Manager Production and Logistics.

With the construction of the 7.45-metre-high warehouse with 210 pallet spaces, 1700 m² of storage space on the first floor and 2000 m² on the basement floor, the company wanted to optimize its internal logistics and spoke to potential suppliers in advance - including Rohrer-Marti AG, which acts as Hubtex's Swiss importer and service partner. Ideas and possible solutions for simplified order picking were discussed with Rohrer-Marti and the specialists from Hubtex back in 2021. The result was a Hubtex MK15 electric multidirectional order picker configured individually for RWD Schlatter, which can also handle the storage of wooden pallets weighing up to 1500 kg up to the maximum lifting height.

Special requests taken into account

The vehicle was delivered in April 2023 - just one month after completion of the new hall, which has four rows of racking and two aisles. "The project with Hubtex went very smoothly and professionally. All of our special requests were taken into account," confirms Peter Seitz, Head of Project and Process Management. Only seven months passed between the order and delivery of the appliance. The only thing that went even faster was the second forklift truck that RWD Schlatter needed for the new hall on the ground floor: a Hubtex MQ35 multidirectional sideloader for the raw materials warehouse was available after just six months.

The 3900 mm long MK15 is controlled from a seated or standing position using a joystick and has an order picking platform with control stand. The platform enables order picking on both sides and can be raised up to a height of 7400 mm. The two telescopic forks, which can be extended on both sides and are also height-adjustable together with the load table, are located in front of it in the direction of travel and viewing direction. Thanks to this initial lift, the order picking pallet can always be brought into an ergonomically favorable position when processing orders with up to 30 positions. The two-part pendulum chassis ensures that all four wheels are in constant contact with the ground thanks to the mechanical level compensation.

Option for the future

The next order position of the current picking order is shown to the operator on a display that is connected via WLAN to the warehouse management system in Borm ERP. To reach the destination, the operator simply has to enter the corresponding shelf compartment address on the Hubtex positioning terminal. "This process could easily be automated via an interface and is an option for the future," emphasizes Manfred Arm from Rohrer-Marti. The positioning terminal consists of a 7-inch touch panel with PC control and additional buttons.

The MK15 is guided inductively within the aisles, which are only 2.60 m wide. Around 200 m of induction wire was laid in the hall floor for this purpose. After entering the destination address, the electric multidirectional order picker moves semi-automatically to the rack compartment. To measure the horizontal position in the aisle, a distance sensor mounted on the mast sends a laser beam to a reflector plate mounted at the end of the aisle. As soon as the horizontal target position is reached, another vertical laser sensor is activated: this measures the current lift height and detects when the respective storage compartment has been reached with a maximum deviation of 20 mm. The operator then raises the load table or picking pallet to the correct height using a joystick, assisted by two cross-line lasers. The required item is then removed from the compartment. To make it easier to move the heavy doors, support rollers can be attached to the load table. As soon as all the doors for an order have been picked up, the picking of the frames, which are stored in the adjacent aisle, begins.

Precise work

"Working with the MK15 is very precise and easy to understand, which makes it quick to learn," reports Antonio Mancuso, who mainly operates the machine and can complete up to 300 picking orders a day. As soon as the machine is on track, the four wheels automatically align themselves for longitudinal travel. With the help of two cameras and a flat screen mounted centrally under the canopy, the operator can see the route ahead. In addition, a personal protection system integrated into the truck with laser scanners installed on both sides prevents people or objects in the aisle from being endangered by the MK15. If an obstacle is detected, the truck brakes automatically. It is only possible to continue driving once the person has left the danger zone or the object has been removed.

Additional security

Two electrically interlocked access barriers to the order picking table, two likewise electrically interlocked entry barriers and a dead man's switch in the platform floor provide additional safety for the electric multidirectional order picker, which meets all the requirements for industrial trucks in narrow aisles in accordance with DIN 15185/2.

RWD Schlatter has significantly simplified internal logistics with the individually configured MK15 electric multidirectional order picker. Compared to the previous process, the storage and picking processes can be carried out with half the manpower and in less time. In addition, the new hall has a very high storage space density because the aisle widths have been reduced to just 2600 mm.