Vierol AG is a globally successful specialist for electronic components and engine management in the automotive sector. More than 50,000 vehicle parts are supplied to 125 countries on all continents. The product portfolio of the VEMO, Vaico and Ackoja brands ranges from EGR valves to timing belts. As an owner-managed family business with headquarters in Oldenburg and subsidiaries in Shanghai and Singapore, the company ensures mobility worldwide with its automotive spare parts. One key to its success is its fast service: recipients in Germany receive their goods the very next morning, in Europe within 48 hours.

Investment of around 20 million euros

Due to the planned growth in both turnover and portfolio, the entire logistics infrastructure needed to be expanded. In the industrial park at the Oldenburg-Nord freeway junction in Rastede, the company invested around 20 million euros in a modern and_CO2-neutral logistics center with a total area of around 10,000 square meters, which opened after a year of construction. The sustainable energy concept for the new building includes a complete power supply from renewable energies and rainwater recovery.

From there, more than 50,000 wear and spare parts for motor vehicles are exported to more than 125 countries. A high-bay pallet warehouse, a specially developed tunnel warehouse and a five-storey shelving system were supplied by warehouse technology experts META-Regalbau. The fully automated and integrated conveyor technology was supplied by Förster & Krause. Both specialists complemented each other in meeting the requirements for this extensive project.

Storage technology from META

The figures for the newly equipped logistics center are impressive:

- 12,600 pallet spaces in the pallet high-bay racking

- Almost 1,000 storage locations with an additional level in the tunnel warehouse (picking directly from the pallet)

- Over 91,000 storage spaces in the five-storey shelving system

But META was also able to score points in the details. The pallet racking system, which is over 16 meters high, is based on the META Multipal racking system. A total of 12,600 pallet spaces were created in the form of a narrow-aisle warehouse. This is supplemented with META Multistrong cantilever racking, which was also positioned as buffer storage. Pallets to be stored are provided there by the incoming goods department.

Pallets that are to be made available directly for order picking are moved into what is known as a cleated warehouse. For this purpose, META has integrated a new and patent-pending airlock solution into a storey system based on the META Multipal system. The almost 1,000

Picking and storage locations are each supplemented with a shelf level for additional storage space. Both the high-bay pallet racking and the tunnel warehouse are operated with the aid of fully automated narrow-aisle forklift trucks. The five-storey META Multifloor shelving racking system is connected to the tunnel warehouse. Almost 23,000 shelves measuring 1,300 x 400 mm were used in this multi-storey system, resulting in a storage capacity of over 91,000 storage locations.

The new META Multifloor modular shelving system is highly flexible in terms of both statics and design, making it easy to adapt the storage solution to the customer's specific requirements - including any static requirements. META Multifloor offers a wide range of applications: from free-standing racking to multi-storey pick towers, long-span racking and wheel/tire storage, high-bay racking for industrial trucks and much more. The maximum shelf utilization thanks to the external connection of the shelves and the wide range of connection options are also advantages of this system.

All walkways are generously designed for a load of 500 kg per square meter and supplemented with steel construction components such as staircases and railings. META has also integrated a freight elevator for transport between floors and ladders from its sister company Hailo as additional escape routes in the tunnel warehouse and the adjacent shelving system.

The overall implementation of this extensive project was carried out as a bidding consortium between Förster & Krause and META. "Our partners recorded the diverse requirements for our extensive project in detail and implemented them professionally with a wealth of ideas," commented Michael Krone, Director of Logistics and IT at Vierol.

This article appeared in materialfluss 10/22.