Opinion
Software and hardware
Once again, our cover features a high-bay warehouse. This is located in Kaltenkirchen near Hamburg at the medium-sized supplier Wiska, that much can already be revealed here.
The expertise that has gone into the design of this system and ensures that the racking remains rock-solid even after decades is just as impressive as the technology that has gone into the storage and retrieval machines and the entire conveying and picking technology of this system.
However, if you read the article starting on page 40, you will see that the real innovation is in the software: only the algorithms of the system software and the seamless connection to the company's SAP system unlock the full potential of the new system. For example, the software ensures that the top products can be approached fastest by the storage and retrieval machines, while goods that are less in demand are stored in more remote positions.
You will also notice from the winners of our "material flow products of the year 2023", which we present to you from page 8 onwards, that software has always played a decisive role in the success of all categories. This is very clear, for example, in category 3: Forklift trucks, forklift technology and AGVs - the success of the winner Knapp Open Shuttle Fork, an autonomous mobile transport robot, is crucially based on the control software. Software was also the deciding factor for the runner-up, the Still LXT 120/350 electric tow tractor: the Still Descent Speed Regulation (DSR). The assistant helps the driver to maintain the optimum speed at all times, depending on the weight and slope of the route.
And yet the progress is not only in the software. A decisive factor in the fact that software such as DSR can be used in large-scale production at all is the enormous progress made in sensor technology, which in this example records the weight of the tugger train as well as the inclination of the route and the speed of the towing vehicle. Software progress and hardware progress are mutually dependent. So we can look forward to exciting innovations on both sides.
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