In recent years, the sales volume of sporting goods and therefore the need for logistics capacity has risen sharply. The variance of the product range is increasing, while processing and delivery times are becoming ever shorter. A few years ago, Intersport's logistics center in Heilbronn reached the limits of its warehouse capacity. The entire warehouse had to be adapted to new market and sales requirements. For this reason, the company invested heavily at its headquarters in the Böllinger Höfe. The purchasing cooperative's one-off investment in the largest single project at the time cost 40 million euros. From the ground-breaking ceremony in March 2017 to the full operational phase, there was no doubt that this investment was the right one.

Drive technology helps to reduce operating costs

Stefan-Marcel Schlepp, Head of Intralogistics, has been working at Intersport for 20 years and knows exactly what is important for the new building. Important goals were to fully utilize the warehouse space while staying on schedule and within budget. For Jürgen Beier, Head of Logistics at Intersport, it was also important that the existing logistics were modernized in parallel with the new building and that delivery operations to Intersport retailers could continue without interruption throughout the entire project.

As part of the expansion, the warehouse has grown by 10,000 square meters in recent years. The total area of the Heilbronn warehouse is around 37,000 square meters. A new building with a height of 36 meters and two levels was constructed on the additional logistics area. The lower level houses the high-tech incoming goods department and a new automated carton warehouse with a shelf height of 24 meters was built on a second level. With this highly automated warehouse, the company can now ship up to 10,000 parcels a day. The conversion project was carefully planned, the targets set were regularly reviewed and adjusted as required. The result is impressive: All targets were achieved and expectations were exceeded in some cases.

Ambitious project with many challenges

The project was very demanding and the technical requirements were highly complex. By means of new automation technology and simultaneous conversion and expansion of the inventory logistics, the top priority was to cover the need for storage capacity on site in the long term. Many different products await delivery to customers in the warehouse every day. The entire stationary trade is supplied from Heilbronn, over 1,000 retailers.

The international technology group Körber and its Supply Chain division were responsible for the automation during the implementation of this challenging project. Patrick Rentz, application engineer in sales at SEW-Eurodrive, was in constant contact with Körber and thus experienced all the difficulties: "Intersport was the first Movi-C project for Körber with several challenges at the same time: Top-Drive control to avoid the mast swinging in the direction of travel and Bellysway to suppress belly vibrations in the direction of the racking during storage and retrieval. In this project, it was important that we worked together across departments, and that worked very well. The proximity to the end customer was a great advantage, as we were quickly on site if necessary. The functional safety technology requirements could be implemented quickly thanks to the fully integrated safety options of the Movi-C modular system and the Movisuite operating software. The project was the starting signal for Körber to switch to the Movi-C electronics generation. Since then, many supply, single-axis and double-axis modules and control systems with numerous software licenses have been sold."

It all depends on the software

Johannes Jakobi, International Account & Project Coordination at SEW-Eurodrive: "We use the Movikit software modules for the automation of storage and retrieval machines because lightweight designs in particular pose challenges in terms of control technology. The interesting thing is that outstanding running times are achieved despite the lightweight construction, as the vibration is reduced to a minimum. Our customers benefit from this in the long term: this protects the mechanical system components, which has a profitable effect on the service life."

In this project, for example, Movikit Antisway provides vibration compensation through the Bellysway function - guaranteeing a higher throughput. Movikit Stackercrane Effidrive achieves energy savings of up to 25 percent by coordinating the movements of the lifting and travel axes of a storage and retrieval machine - a purely software solution.

Carsten Ripp, sales engineer at SEW-Eurodrive: "In such projects, the focus is clearly on shortening the commissioning time, in addition to other important objectives. After all, the customer wants to get their systems up and running quickly and easily. This means that the overall complexity on the construction site must be reduced. We make sure of that. With Movi-C, we achieve very short commissioning times. This means our customers can also keep an eye on their costs and project times." With Movikit, customers can easily parameterize instead of programming. This reduces commissioning times by up to 80 percent through the use of intelligent software modules - a very positive result.

The key to the success of every project: forward-looking solutions and good partnerships

Mark Vogt, Director Sales & Marketing at Körber Supply Chain, greatly appreciates the cooperation with SEW-Eurodrive: "Körber Supply Chain chose SEW-Eurodrive because the close partnership between the two companies has been intensively cultivated for years. The SEW products absolutely meet the requirements in intralogistics and the portfolio is continuously being developed and optimized," he summarizes, and explains what exactly is important in such a partnership: "The partnership is not limited to the joint successful implementation of projects. Rather, it is characterized by joint developments. In many applications, we work together on the further development of drive, inverter and energy management technology. Körber Supply Chain sees another strength of SEW-Eurodrive in its good, fast and comprehensive service."

Successful project completion - new prospects for the future

Storage and retrieval machines not only store and retrieve materials and goods automatically. Storage and retrieval machines also support the processes associated with warehousing. The requirements of Intersport and Körber Supply Chain - economical storage, low energy consumption, high operational reliability, fast commissioning and reliable automation technology - were met.

The central warehouse in Heilbronn impresses with its modern logistics facilities with a high throughput and optimally coordinated logistics processes - from goods receipt, storage and retrieval to order picking and dispatch. The high availability of the facilities has resulted in one of the most modern logistics centers in the region.

This perfect logistics world was created through a smart and courageous investment and through the partnership and cooperation of all the companies involved.