Futterplatz.de, an established mail order company for pet food and accessories for over 13 years, is enjoying continuous growth. At the end of 2011, the existing warehouse space of 1,000 square meters proved to be too small for the now around 8,000 articles or 400,000 individual items. As further expansion was not possible at the old location, the company relocated to a warehouse with 5,000 square meters of floor space. In the end, the company management with operations manager Julius Schmidt had to recognize that efficiency was being lost through the expansion, partly because the six-metre-high hall was not being fully utilized except for a small section with a high-bay warehouse. Although the walking distances and proximity to the picking stations for fast and slow-moving products could be improved, the racks with a handle height of 1.70 meters and pallet spaces were only built into the space. This resulted in excessively long distances for the employees, who also had to transport large loads. The picking times increased disproportionately. The storage process also took an unnecessarily long time due to manual storage after depalletization and the definition of a precisely suitable storage location. During the search for a solution, various storage and picking technologies were evaluated, but none were convincing: too large in terms of design and investment requirements, not flexible and not expandable in stages, too high learning requirements for the workforce, standstill of day-to-day business during construction and relocation.

A new approach to warehousing and order picking
This meant rethinking storage and order picking. This is where the long-standing partnership with sister companies ICO and Telejet paid off. ICO's IT expertise and Telejet's inventiveness resulted in a completely new type of warehouse automation. The shelf remained the optimal basis for storing heterogeneous products that differ in size, shape, characteristics, feel and other parameters. Based on the above characterization, Telejet and ICO have developed a fundamentally new approach that is based on a core: free-moving robots that orient themselves to codes on the floor. storage areas and routes can be built on the standardized floor panels in a defined grid format. In detail, this means that in a shelving system with stacked levels, many goods carriers are placed close together and moved, coupled and uncoupled with compact storage robots. Depending on the products to be stored, the goods carriers can be equipped with individual compartments and subdivided.

Horizontally and vertically mobile robots
The different levels of the flexible shelving system are connected by several elevators and enable the robots to move both horizontally and vertically. The robots are not rail-bound and can move freely, using the codes on the specially coated floors for orientation and are orchestrated by the central system via radio. The storage robots are the size of a robotic mower for domestic use, but are far more powerful and have a considerable transport capacity.
A special feature is the optimal use of the height of existing warehouses between 1.80 and ten meters. The individual shelving areas of the self-contained system have a footprint of 1.20 by 1.60 meters and are connected to each other by steel columns. Software is used to define which areas are to be used as routes and which as storage areas.

Storage area utilized up to the ceiling
The idea of implementing storage systems that adapt to the spatial conditions on the basis of the defined floor areas proved itself immediately at Futterplatz.de. The Storojet storage area is located between the supporting pillars of the hall, while the travel paths to the picking stations run around the outside of the pillars. One picking station, which is primarily used for storage, is located near a hall door, another near the previous packing line. For seasonal peaks, a third workstation was also set up to ensure the necessary output when required.

The storage area extends to below the ceiling beams, has a total height of around 5.20 meters and thus provides 5,000 square meters of storage and movement space on a 400 square meter floor area. It was also determined which products were suitable for storage in the system in terms of size, weight and call-off volume. The required scope of the storage system was selected so that further levels are available for successive growth. For cost reasons, the storage tower can, for example, be built halfway up and then gradually equipped with further storage levels. Expansion of the floor space can also be carried out without any problems during ongoing operations. Daily processes do not have to be interrupted.

This was also the case at Futterplatz.de: construction and initial commissioning ran parallel to the previous operation, there was no standstill and no classic relocation. Similar to a soft opening, the new warehouse system is continuously filled with goods and gradually equipped with additional robots that move the goods carriers