BSH Hausgeräte GmbH is the largest manufacturer of household appliances in Europe and is one of the world's leading companies in the industry. It operates around 40 factories worldwide and produces the entire range of modern household appliances. High-quality refrigeration technology has been developed and produced in Giengen an der Brenz for over 70 years - around 1.5 million refrigerators and freezers a year. At this site, BSH operates a high-bay warehouse with three storage and retrieval machines (SRMs) and upstream conveyor technology on two levels to supply production. In order to bring the system up to the latest state of the art and secure the supply of spare parts in the long term, a fundamental modernization was now due.

Kardex Mlog, BSH's long-standing partner for intralogistics, was commissioned with the planning and implementation of the measures. The cooperation between the two companies goes back more than 15 years. In 2005, Kardex Mlog had already modernized the system of a third-party supplier once and subsequently adapted it to the growing requirements of the operator with various extensions. In the course of the current project, Kardex Mlog will first completely modernize the stacker cranes. The conveyor technology will follow in a second step.

The conversions and recommissioning of the three stacker cranes will take place successively by mid/end 2021 and mid-2022, allowing the modernization to be carried out during ongoing operations despite the almost 24/7 operation of the system. Among other things, the stacker cranes will be equipped with completely new sensors and camera systems, new programmable logic controllers and modern communication technology. Drives, controllers and gearboxes on the travel and lifting units and the telescopic forks will be completely replaced, as will the telescopic forks.

As part of the measures, a vertical transfer unit and two distribution trolleys will also be modernized with new sensors and drive components and various discontinued components in the conveyor technology will be replaced. To further increase personal safety, new muting light barriers and a machine safety gate will be installed. Thanks to the extensive catalog of measures, Kardex Mlog, as BSH's maintenance and service partner, can guarantee the long-term safety of system availability and operating personnel as well as a spare parts supply of at least ten years.