Häcker Küchen in Venne in the Osnabrücker Land region has built Plant 5, one of the most modern production facilities for kitchen furniture. It went into operation in August 2020 after less than two years of construction. Around 300 employees manufacture furniture for fitted kitchens here on a production area of around 110,000 square meters. Viastore's Viadat takes on the classic tasks of a manufacturing execution system (MES). The software creates the basis for the production of a varied, design-oriented kitchen line. "The investment in the new plant was the largest in the company's history," explains Dirk Krupka, Managing Director Technology at Häcker. "The capacities at our Rödinghausen site were fully utilized, and any disruptions in production there would have had a direct impact on the customer's delivery date." For this reason alone, it was necessary to expand production capacity. We also launched a new product line onto the market that we would not have been able to produce in any of our previous plants."

Kitchen production with many design variants

Krupka is talking about the Systemat 3.0 product line, a high-quality, design-oriented kitchen that offers many options for kitchen planning in a 13-panel grid. Customers can choose between three colors for the design carcass. The fronts can be painted in 192 RAL colors or can be selected with plastic or real wood fronts. There is also a choice of different fitting systems. This means that no two kitchens are the same. "The logistical demands are quite extreme. We only manufacture to customer order, which means we have complete batch size 1 production," emphasizes Dirk Krupka.

To achieve this, the material flow is fully controlled. "There is no undefined material status," explains Friedbernd Bartels, Head of Technical Projects at Häcker. "Every material movement is controlled according to the source-destination principle and every movement, every work step, is reported back to the system." The Viadat software is used to control material flows throughout the plant.

Controlled material flows through the entire plant

Häcker Küchen was already using the software. "We were familiar with Viastore and the possibilities of the software, which go far beyond a warehouse management and material flow management system. We had already built our first high-bay warehouse with Viastore in 1999," reports Krupka. In numerous discussions and workshops, Häcker came to the conclusion that Viadat should also take on the tasks of a classic production control system, ranging from material tracking to monitoring movements. "The production supply and disposal required by Häcker are a standard requirement for Viadat," emphasizes Peer Leemhuis, who supervised the project on the Viastore side. Coupling with the control systems of different logistics systems and technologies is also part of everyday life for the system. There is a lot to coordinate at Häcker's Plant 5: In addition to a 16-aisle high-bay warehouse, an electric monorail system, a shuttle warehouse, a gantry picking system and five pick-by-light and two put-to-light storage areas are integrated. Viadat also functions as a forklift and AGV control system with nine driverless transport vehicles.

Complex processes controlled on time

The material flows at Häcker involve special requirements and structures. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that the production effort and the variance of the various components - carcasses, fronts, drawers - are different. On the other hand, the production of a kitchen and all parts must be timed so that all components arrive at the dispatch department on time for the planned delivery date, and in the order in which they are loaded onto the truck to the customer, the kitchen retailer. This means that production is planned from the end. Based on the delivery time, the order for a kitchen is broken down and it is calculated when the production process for which component has to start so that everything comes together on time at the end. The scheduling of the fleet, which currently comprises around 100 trucks, is therefore determined by the production program. The strict sequence of operations ensures lean processes, short throughput times and a generally high level of efficiency.

Different process steps in carcass assembly

Different variances and production costs of the cabinet components make it necessary to divide production into different processes. The cabinet components are divided into A, B and C parts. A parts are often required in the same variant - for example, standard base units in white. They are transferred directly from the high-bay warehouse (HRL) on pallets via the electric monorail system (EMS) to the driverless transport system and transported to the assembly station. Viadat receives the corresponding replenishment request from the final assembly line via a database interface. The software is also the leading system for the AGV: it takes care of order control, recording and booking the load unit with the respective stock.