Fast realization of a tailor-made storage solution

The planning and work was carried out in a targeted and very efficient manner, so that the project was handed over to the customer with a positive acceptance after just four months. The new building not only turned out to be the better solution in terms of cost-effectiveness, it also made it possible to optimize processes and thus become even more efficient.

As a distribution network operator, Wiener Netze provides the electricity, gas and district heating networks in Vienna and the surrounding area, bundling all network services under one roof. Around 2.1 million customers in Vienna and parts of Lower Austria and Burgenland are served around the clock. The energy reaches customers in Vienna and the surrounding area via 23,000 km of electricity grid, 4,600 km of gas grid, 46 substations and 11,000 transformer stations. Around 1.5 million electricity meters and almost 700,000 gas meters ensure that the energy can be billed correctly. Wiener Netze also operates the 564 km long primary network for district heating and around 2,000 km of fiber optic network. Almost 2,500 employees work for Wiener Netze. The company invests over EUR 200 million per year in maintaining and expanding the network infrastructure.

Project with sustainable construction

The design and planning of the new company headquarters on the Wiener Netze campus in Vienna-Simmering was carried out in cooperation with Wiener Netze, the management consultancy firm Econsult and the Austrian subsidiary of META-Regalbau. In addition to the new 'Smart Campus' office building for 1,400 employees, the aim of the extensive project was to build a new central warehouse including various workshops in order to centralize the individual departments on 96,000 m² of usable space. The entire campus was built with sustainable construction in mind. This comprehensive use of state-of-the-art technologies, which are all optimized by smart energy management, coupled with perfect insulation and shading, makes the new Smart Campus one of the largest low-energy buildings in passive house construction in the world.

"We have shown that META is the right partner for everything from individual shelves to extensive projects."

Gerhard Lichtl, Managing Director META Austria

After numerous coordination meetings, changes and plan revisions, the concrete offer was finalized. The META storage solution was convincing, and so the subsidiary of the Arnsberg-based storage specialist was awarded the contract with an order volume of over one million euros.

Design for the event of a disaster

The order comprised three shelving systems, a large number of pallet racks and cantilever racks for the main warehouse as well as various other racks for all the workshops, which are spread across countless rooms. An important aspect of this project was the design of the pallet racking for earthquake zone 2, significance class 4, in order to be able to maintain the entire infrastructure in the event of a disaster.

The following shelf types were used:

• META Multipal pallet racking
• META Multistrong cantilever racking
• META Multipal profile storage racking
• META Speedrack longspan / wide span racking
• META Clip shelving, open fronted storage box shelving and tray shelving

Various storage solutions in use

The META Multipal pallet racking system created around 7,000 pallet spaces in the 8,000 m² central warehouse. The META CLIP boltless shelving system provides approx. 3,600 running meters of shelves in 2-storey shelving systems for optimum storage of a wide variety of materials. This system is extremely flexible and can be adapted to the stored goods and conditions. In addition, the META Multistrong Heavy heavy-duty cantilever racking system was used to create around 700 running meters of cantilever space.

A total of around 360 tons of storage technology was installed, with the biggest challenge being the coordination of deliveries. The handling, coordination, installation supervision and construction site meetings took a lot of time. However, this made it possible to guarantee a smooth process and deliver a positive result. META was one of the few companies on the construction site to meet all interim and final deadlines, despite all the problems that arose.

Gerhard Lichtl, Managing Director of the META Austria subsidiary, expressed his satisfaction after the project was completed: "This project was a special challenge for META Austria. On the one hand, the scope of the project is not an everyday occurrence and, on the other, we wanted to do justice to our market-leading position in Austria. We have shown that META is the right partner for everything from individual shelves to extensive projects."

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