Forward-looking and long-term planning was important to the international electronics distributor TME as a family business: when the rapidly expanding mail order and online retailer planned an automated high-bay warehouse for pallets together with Kardex Mlog in 2011, plenty of space was provided for further growth. In the first expansion stage, the building, which is almost 23 meters high, 96 meters long and 8.3 meters deep, only had a single storage aisle, which was served by a Kardex MSingle storage and retrieval machine (SRM). The capacity of around 2,500 pallet spaces was completely sufficient 11 years ago. In 2011, TME's range comprised 64,350 products and the daily order intake amounted to 1,300 items.

The challenge: conversion despite ongoing operations

Three years later, these figures had almost doubled, so Kardex Mlog was commissioned with the first expansion of two more aisles in 2014. With this tripling of storage capacity, TME was well equipped for the next five years. In 2016, the only thing on the agenda was to optimize the distribution trolley in order to increase the throughput of the system.

It was not until 2019 that large-scale trading was needed again: In the meantime, TME was receiving 3,650 orders a day and the range had grown to 329,000 products. As in 2014, Kardex Mlog built two additional storage aisles including two SRMs, the conveyor technology for storage and retrieval with eight drives and the steel racking construction during ongoing operations. This increased the storage capacity in the high-bay warehouse by a further 4,920 to around 12,500 pallet spaces. Thanks to Kardex Mlog's meticulous scheduling, the conversion was completed in August 2020 after less than four months. "We have been working with Kardex Mlog for over ten years and our expectations of the project progress were also reliably and seamlessly met in the last construction phase for the time being," reports Kornel Betkowski, who accompanied and was responsible for the expansion on behalf of TME.

TME also relied on Kardex MSingle A600/23-ET stacker cranes for this third construction phase. Unloaded, they move through the aisles at a speed of up to 60 m/min and are controlled by modern Siemens S7-1500F PLCs and SEW MoviPLCs. A maximum of 57 single and 35 double cycles per stacker crane per hour are possible. Each process and the current positions of the five stacker cranes and the conveyor technology are graphically displayed in the warehouse control station using the new Kardex MVisu visualization software introduced at TME. The software previously used at TME was not compatible with modern browsers and was no longer supported by the manufacturer.

Remote maintenance made uncomplicated

Kardex MVisu was developed by Kardex Mlog specifically for warehouse handling equipment. Once purchased, the license is unlimited in time and can be used by any number of users. In conjunction with TeamViewer, it also forms the basis for simple remote maintenance of the devices. The visualization is connected to the PLC via TCP/IP and the data exchange is permanent. An integrated notification system with powerful filter and search functions rounds off the solution.

Each SRM has a traveling control cabinet equipped with a touch panel. This allows the storage and retrieval machine to be moved in semi-automatic, manual and set-up mode. Any faults or malfunctions during operation can be localized quickly and easily using the cameras installed on the stacker cranes. The viewing area of the cameras is illuminated for better image display.

Focus on ease of maintenance

The maintenance-friendly technology of the Kardex MSingle A enables an inexpensive automation variant with high handling capacity and maximum space utilization. The devices supplied for TME are 22.1 m high and offer a load capacity of 1,000 kg. Thanks to the compact tubular mast design and the absence of an enclosed driver's platform, the Kardex MSingle A has a lower tare weight compared to conventional SRMs. This means that smaller and more economical drives can be used for the travel and lifting gear. The slim design also allows a narrower clear aisle width and very small approach dimensions in the trolley and hoist directions. Another design feature is the rope deflection at the column head: this is carried out via two plastic rope pulleys with roller bearings, which enables a longer service life for the hoist rope.

The result: with the second major expansion of the automated high-bay warehouse at TME's central logistics center in Lodz, the long-term investment has only just reached its capacity limit. This is because the current size still offers the distributor room for future growth.