End of outdoor halls, green light for new logistics hall

Mindelheim has been the headquarters of GROB-Werke GmbH & Co KG for almost 40 years. The family-owned company is a provider of customer-specific complete solutions in large-scale production: individualized production systems consisting of modular machining centers and special machines that are linked by modern automation solutions. These include machining systems for the automotive industry, assembly systems and universal machining centers for suppliers in the medical technology, tool and mould making and aerospace sectors.

In recent years, the plant manufacturer has expanded its production by more than 35% and created around 700 additional jobs. At the same time, however, the requirements for an efficient material flow to supply the assembly workstations have also increased. "The storage capacity at the site was no longer sufficient. We had to switch to external warehouses, which we operated according to the classic person-to-goods principle," explains Christian Lisiecki, Head of Logistics at GROB.

In future, the goods will come to the order picker

Containers of different sizes can be stored together in the AKL. This enables the flexible storage of small parts.

With the aim of bringing back the various external warehouses, the company management gave the green light for a new logistics hall two years ago. With this project, GROB also switched its warehouse concept to a system with planned goods-to-person picking. Of the 15 potential suppliers originally approached, viastore won the race. "We were impressed by viastore's high level of system and software expertise. It is not easy to find a partner whose software can be seamlessly connected to SAP," emphasizes Lisiecki.

Store or retrieve 580 containers per hour

viastore implemented a four-aisle automated small parts warehouse (AKL) with 2-/4-deep storage and a seven-aisle, single-deep automated pallet warehouse at GROB. Four viaspeed high-performance storage and retrieval machines (SRMs) operate in the small parts warehouse, which is 65.5 meters long, 8.4 meters wide and 8.8 meters high. 26,288 storage locations are available and 580 containers can be stored and retrieved per hour. The warehouse has four picking stations and is connected to a manual warehouse on a platform with a storage/retrieval station. Depending on the situation, the load handling devices of the viaspeed can handle either two containers with a base area of 600 × 400 millimetres, four containers with a base area of 300 × 400 millimetres - or one 600 × 400 and two 300 × 400 containers. The benefits: significantly greater flexibility when storing small parts, significantly higher space utilization. Each container can hold a load of 15 or 30 kilograms.

Clever idea from the intralogistics experts

viastore has divided the small parts warehouse into two halves. "This allows us to serve both sides with just one conveyor connection," explains Peter Päusch, who heads viastore's Planning and Sales Office South.

The viapal automated pallet warehouse has space for 8,772 Euro pallets. In full operation, the storage and retrieval machines perform 280 storage and retrieval operations per hour.

The automated pallet warehouse with four picking stations and seven viapal storage and retrieval machines is 76.6 meters long, 30.4 meters wide and 8.5 meters high. Storage is single-deep, with 8,772 storage locations available with a maximum load capacity of one ton per pallet. In full operation, the storage and retrieval machines perform 280 storage and retrieval operations per hour. Here, too, GROB stores in a chaotic manner and according to the "first in - first out" principle. A camera system records the fill level of each load carrier. GROB uses SAP in conjunction with the viadat warehouse management system from viastore Software to manage and control the system. viadat is linked to SAP and focuses on the allocation and management of storage locations in this application. In addition, it controls the driving strategies for the loading units in the automatic section of the logistics center.

SAP is the leading IT system, viadat allocates the storage space

The customer's requirement was that SAP should be the leading system, including in the warehouse. Nevertheless, GROB wanted to adopt important functions from viadat. viadat can be adapted to all requirements thanks to its modular structure. "viadat has sovereignty over space allocation. The system knows where which goods are located," says Lisiecki and adds: "viadat knows how to use the logic of the distributions better than SAP." Lisiecki describes the combination of SAP, viadat and the viastore system as a "very good solution that implements our SAP ideas and utilizes the strengths of the viastore solutions."

The automatic warehouse has paid off for GROB. The system has been running smoothly right from the start. "The automated solution from viastore allows us to further optimize our processes. The picking quality is very good and the handling speed is significantly higher than before," concludes Lisiecki.

Contact:GROB-Werke GmbH & Co KG 87719 Mindelheim Tel.: 0 82 61 / 9 96-0 E-Mail:[email protected] www.grobgroup.com

viastore Systems GmbH 70469 Stuttgart Tel.: 07 11 / 98 18-0 E-Mail:[email protected] www.viastoresystems.de