Increasing the level of service through automation

Following the implementation of the initial project in 2006 and two subsequent successful expansions during ongoing operations in 2010 and 2012, Förch built a new logistics center in 2014/2015, which was fully integrated and connected to the existing logistics center. The decision to build a new logistics center was made because the existing system was working almost at its capacity limit and a further increase in capacity in the existing buildings was no longer efficiently possible.

The existing logistics center serves as a distribution center for the currently 19 European countries and includes a small parts warehouse (K warehouse) with 78,000 storage locations and a Euro half-pallet warehouse (V warehouse) with 15,000 storage locations. In total, the system handles up to 2,200 order lines per hour at peak times. The highly automated system processes 10,000 orders with almost 40,000 items within 18 hours every day. Thanks to the automated logistics concept used there, Förch achieved a service level of over 98 percent, as the goods-to-person principle saved employees a lot of walking.

Fast, light and efficient: the QuickstoreMicroshuttle.

In order to continue to meet the growing demands of the market, it was essential to optimize the logistics processes within the company. In addition to increasing storage capacity and delivery capability, this optimization also included more efficient, highly ergonomic picking workstations as well as an additional packaging and outgoing goods area.

Shuttle technology catches on

According to Vanderlande, it is the only supplier on the market to offer four different shuttle types, so that the right solution can be found for every requirement. For the requirements at Förch, the Vanderlande Microshuttle offers the optimum solution in the automated small parts warehouse. As part of the first construction phase, a total of 32 Quickstore Microshuttles will be used, evenly distributed over 16 aisles on two levels. The advantage of the Microshuttle system lies not only in its enormous performance but also in its high scalability, which makes it possible to quickly and easily integrate additional shuttles into the individual aisles at any time as order structures change. The QuickstoreMicroshuttle is also easy to maintain. Due to its own weight of 40 kg, it can be moved out of the aisle at any time for offline maintenance.

Highly ergonomic workstations

The first stage of the new logistics system includes two highly ergonomic picking workstations from the Pick@Ease family. In a study certified by TÜV Nord, Vanderlande focused on people. Among other things, the influences and effects of different concepts in relation to body movements and postures, muscle groups, circulation and mental aspects were examined. The results of this ergonomics study were initially transferred to article picking in goods-to-person systems. Pick@ease workstations are designed for a wide range of capacities and value-added services and, with 100 to 1,000 order lines per hour and operator, offer an optimal solution for increasing the productivity of operators and processes. They also make a decisive contribution to reducing the error rate to almost zero.

In addition to the ergonomics of the picking workstations, the changing speed of the source and target containers also played a decisive role at Förch. For this reason, Vanderlande developed the [email protected]+ especially for Förch, which, in contrast to the previous Pick@Ease models, not only has a fast changer for the source container, but now also for the target containers. The [email protected]+ differs from the previous high-performance workstations in the processing of individual orders, whereby the source containers are offered at the workstation and thus to the operator in sequence.

Competitive in the future

The existing warehouse management system LVS was converted to the latest generation of the Vanderlande Software Suite Vision back in 2015. This meant that the somewhat "outdated" existing software was initially trimmed to today's new "Förch-specific" processes. This step was also necessary in order to centrally control both systems in the two logistics centers. As a result, it is now possible to continuously utilize both logistics centers via the new joint order start and joint batch planning.

The completely redesigned order start has now been relocated to the new logistics center. From there, order carriers can drive to each individual picking area in the old and new logistics center. In the current expansion stage, the capacity here has initially been doubled, with further expansion reserves already taken into account for the next construction stage. The same applies to the newly constructed Euro half-pallet warehouse (V-warehouse) with around 15,000 storage spaces and the micro shuttle warehouse with around 65,000 storage spaces, both of which offer space for additional expansion stages.

Four repacking stations, where Euro pallets are supplied from a hazardous goods warehouse via a conveyor system, are completely new. At these repacking stations, goods are repacked from Euro pallets onto half pallets, collected in the system and automatically transferred to the V-warehouse. In contrast to the existing logistics center, the completely variable conveyor connection of the picking workstations to the new Microshuttle warehouse now enables a much more flexible supply of article trays to the workstations. In addition, the order and source trays are now delivered to the picking workstations much more quickly, as they are temporarily stored in one or three additional tower storage units for sequencing.

In addition, the concept with the microshuttle system offers greater variability with regard to the storage strategies of article trays while at the same time increasing performance. The new logistics center already has a proportionally higher picking performance with fewer workstations and additional expansion reserves for both the picking stations and the packing and goods issue lines.

The new logistics system was successfully put into operation in April 2016. Due to the software changeover and the connection to the existing system, this also underwent extensive modernization. "The expansion of the entire system with the associated increase in picking performance and storage capacity was necessary in order to be able to continue to guarantee our customers a high level of service in the future, especially in terms of daily delivery. Logistics is thus optimally positioned for further growth. A success factor for this very complex project was the cooperation between the project participants and the common will to succeed," explains Holger Thrun, Group Managing Director Supply Chain Management.

Reinhold Kuhn, Chairman of the Group Management Board, adds: "The processes already established in the first project were adopted and further optimized by the new software and conveyor and picking technology. This resulted in an overall successful outcome with our long-standing partner Vanderlande."