Real trust in real quality

When it comes to assembly and fastening materials, there is no getting around Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. The Künzelsau-based company offers its customers more than 125,000 different products, from screws to tools. The Würth Group relies on various logistics concepts. More than 750 employees work in two shifts in Künzelsau to handle order picking and logistics. The company has a capacity of 90,000 pallet spaces and 190,000 container spaces there alone, which are divided into different areas (north-south and west) and connected by around 18 km of conveyor technology. Together, all storage areas achieve a throughput of around 29,000 parcels and almost 700 pallets per day.

Modernization in full operation
The first stage of a complete refurbishment has now been completed at the HRL South. Area A is designed as a pallet warehouse and has 5,700 picking stations. Eight manual storage and retrieval machines take care of picking and three narrow-aisle forklifts in nine aisles take care of replenishment. And this has been the case since 1978. As the racking system was already quite old, the storage and retrieval machines and the conveyor technology integrated into the racking were in need of an overhaul and, last but not least, the sprinkler system had to be brought up to the state of the art, modernization was unavoidable.

The special feature here was that the retrofit had to take place during ongoing operations, as Roland Schneider, Head of Operating Technology at Würth, explains. With these special requirements in mind, Würth launched a tender with a number of large and small specialist companies. In the end, MANZ was awarded the contract for this project: "We already had the feeling in advance that other companies would not have been able to carry this out as cleanly and accurately as MANZ," says Ulrich Windmüller, expert for shelf testing in Würth's operating technology department, explaining this decision: "In hindsight, I can say that we made the absolutely right decision in choosing MANZ." While some major competitors only offered parts of the scope of services, MANZ presented a coordinated concept as a complete package.

High-bay warehouse south

• Monitoring point
• Empty bin reports
• Rush orders

Area A:

• Storage capacity: 5,700 pallet spaces
• 8 storage and retrieval machines and 2 narrow-aisle high-bay stackers

Area B

• Storage capacity: 34,000 container locations
• 16 storage and retrieval machines

Clever coordination
"MANZ also took care of the scheduling with the other trades for us. There were no problems here either," adds Schneider. In addition to the shelving technology, which MANZ supplied itself, the company also helped organize the sprinkler installation. This differs significantly in the new facility from the old one, as the current regulations had to be complied with. Whereas a 3-level rack sprinkler system was previously used, the new system now has a 6-level rack sprinkler system. The distance between levels is now 2 m, so that all materials, including wood and especially plastic, can now be stored without hesitation. Normally, the new sprinkler system is at the expense of some storage locations, but MANZ was also able to compensate for this by selecting a different height division through special design measures.Wolfgang Manz, Managing Director of MANZ Lagertechnik, also found the collaboration with Würth to be something special: "Even during the preliminary discussions, we realized that the Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG Würth Group is a company that has a very special relationship with its suppliers. Trust for trust - that was the motto throughout the entire collaboration. All clarifications were brought about quickly and competently, we were given every possible assistance - in short, the relationship was very professional and based on partnership."

Follow-up order in area B
As the modernization of pallet warehouse A went so smoothly, Würth decided to have MANZ modernize area B of the high-bay warehouse West as well. "In this area, a racking system for Schäfer crates with a capacity of 34,000 spaces, the racks are not being replaced, but they are being modified using a specially developed method so that they once again meet current requirements," adds Windmüller. The sprinkler system will also be completely updated, and all 16 storage and retrieval machines and the conveyor technology will be overhauled. Schneider can therefore well imagine working with MANZ again in the future: "We have had nothing but the best experiences with MANZ Lagertechnik. If we were to tackle similar projects again, we would definitely bring MANZ on board again."

www.wuerth.de www.manz-lagertechnik.de