Storage- and racking systems
Consolidated, picked and delivered
Wollschläger implemented a partially automated logistics concept in the new logistics center in Bochum. In addition to a high-bay racking system with 9,500 pallet spaces, a shelving racking system offers space for 80,000 units. SSI Schäfer impressed with its conveyor system concept. A tour of the new logistics center of Wollschläger GmbH & Co. KG in Bochum makes craftsmen's hearts beat faster: over 85,000 precision tools and C-parts are stored here. It is a hive of activity: They are checked, counted, recorded, stored and picked again, assembled, checked and finally packed and dispatched with care. Wollschläger makes almost anything possible for its customers, regardless of whether it is a small craft business, a chemical giant or a technology group.
Due to the increase in the range of services and articles and the volume of orders, the old warehouse became too small and Wollschläger looked for a new location. The company found what it was looking for directly on the A40, where a 115,000 square meter site with a 28,000 square meter hall was up for sale. The initial plans for the large-scale project were drawn up in 2012 together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML), which developed various logistics concepts ranging from manual to fully automated.
Semi-automated logistics concept offers flexibility
Wollschläger ultimately opted for a semi-automated logistics concept because it offered more flexibility. The plans included a forklift-operated high-bay racking system with 9,500 pallet spaces, a three-storey shelving system with 80,000 storage units for small parts, four automatic vertical lift systems with 20,000 spaces for very small parts and an automatic buffer warehouse for consolidating up to 1,960 order containers. Finally, a conveyor system for cartons and containers was to connect the incoming goods area with the three manual picking levels, the goods-to-person workstations in front of the four automatic storage systems, the packing area and the dispatch area. In addition, the material flow computer and thus the complete warehouse and material flow control were to be mapped in the SAP EWM system.
The installation of the automatic conveyor system was the most complex part of the project, as it had to be coordinated with the steel construction and the connected warehouse areas over three levels and the control system also had to be connected to SAP EWM via an interface. The full-service provider SSI Schaefer impressed with a suitable conveyor system concept and suggestions for optimizing individual details. SSI Schaefer's scope of supply also included two Schaefer Carousel Systems (SCS) as buffers for consolidating articles from different storage areas, a container stacker and a container destacker as well as eight workstations in goods receiving, 18 in picking, 24 in packing and three in shipping.
Millimeter work in conveyor technology
"As we didn't have a general contractor, we had to rely on good partners to keep to our schedule. The project manager and the installation team from SSI Schaefer really got stuck in, so that the work on the construction site really went hand in hand. SSI Schaefer had to coordinate in detail with our steel fabricator when setting up the conveyor technology. Sometimes it came down to millimetres," Volker Nielsen, Head of Logistics and authorized signatory at Wollschläger, sums up approvingly and also praises the flexibility in the event of necessary changes during assembly. In summer 2014 - six months before the planned production start - the complete conveyor system and the SCS were installed. "The containers now move on the roller conveyors and conveyor belts at a speed of 0.6 m/s instead of 0.3 m/s on our old system. This has significantly increased throughput," says Nielsen happily.
The largest move in the company's history took place within twelve days at the turn of 2015. Around 400 truckloads with 50,000 items and a weight of 800 tons were transported.
Automatic container stacker and destacker
Today, the containers with replenishments are transported from the workstations in the incoming goods area to the designated storage areas via the conveyor system. At Wollschläger, empty containers are stacked into each other by an automatic container stacker to save space and buffered on a conveyor line. If new empty containers are required, the automatic destacker feeds the
bins back into the conveyor system. When the order is started, a printed label with stickers for picking is automatically attached to each bin. This means that the order is permanently assigned to this container and it is automatically transported to the correct picking zone. The conveyor system thus saves walking distances for warehouse employees.
In order to be able to pack all items from the different storage areas in one delivery, the items from small parts picking wait in the SCS until they can be brought together with the goods from the high-bay warehouse at one of the 24 packing stations. The SCS has a capacity for buffering up to 1,960 bins with a throughput of up to 800 bins per hour.
Deporting instead of lifting
"The semi-automated logistics concept gives us the flexibility, performance and cost-effectiveness we need for efficient storage," explains Volker Nielsen and emphasizes: "We have placed great emphasis on ergonomics and connected all workstations to the conveyor technology." The employees hardly have to lift the containers, they just have to pull them up or push them down."
On average, production a few months after commissioning was three percent higher than in the old system - even though deliveries with just one item have increased significantly. Whereas in 2013 there were an average of 3.5 items per order, today there are only 2.5 items. With the optimized processes, Wollschläger believes it is well equipped for further challenges.
Ingo Rehländer
Contact:
SSI Schäfer Fritz Schäfer GmbH 57290 Neunkirchen Tel.: 0 27 35 / 70-1 E-Mail:
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