The Hawle Austria Group produces and sells heavy-duty valves worldwide. The products, which are designed to last for generations, are used in residential water management from the source to the house connection. The Hawle Austria Group has twelve subsidiaries in Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Russia, Turkey, Italy, Great Britain and India.

IGZ, the SAP engineers from Falkenberg, implemented the logistics processes in SAP EWM with direct control of the warehouse technology by SAP MFS. Hörmann Intralogistics was commissioned to set up an automated high-bay warehouse in order to reduce the numerous rented external warehouses, minimize the resulting transport costs and create additional capacity in production. Raw and semi-finished parts are temporarily stored here for production or for provision in shipping.

Production is connected directly from production via a new, two-storey conveyor system for pallets. In addition, a loading and unloading station is planned in the outer wall of the new logistics hall, which can be reached from the yard with forklifts and is dynamically approached by SAP EWM in exceptional situations in order to ensure production supply at all times.

Goods receipt and dispatch for different load carriers

The 5-aisle high-bay warehouse is equipped with five aisle-bound storage and retrieval machines (SRMs). These have a telescopic fork for double-deep storage. A three-bay storage system is provided next to each other per rack compartment. The storage and retrieval aisles of the high-bay warehouse are connected to a loop conveyor line that extends into the logistics hall to pick up and drop off goods. All storage and retrieval machines are equipped with a compartment fine positioning system that detects both the front and rear z-positions.

Normal load units are loaded on three conveyor lines with weight and contour control at goods inwards. Mesh boxes are only loaded on the middle conveyor section. There, the placement area is automatically equipped with a wooden sub-pallet onto which the pallet cage is placed. The empty pallets required for this are stacked in a buffer area and, if necessary, transported individually to the placement area.

Regrouping and bundling

Hörmann Logistik is now part of the new Hörmann Intralogistics division within the Hörmann Group. This bundles the various business activities in the intralogistics and services segments in order to provide its customers with even better support for current and future requirements. With this division, the Hörmann Group is positioning itself more broadly as a system provider in the field of sophisticated system solutions in the intralogistics industry in order to be able to continue to grow successfully and to offer end-to-end services.

Hörmann Intralogistics relies on the core competencies in automation and IT developed over decades, as well as the experience proven in many reference plants as a general contractor for the construction of turnkey material flow solutions, as a product supplier for conveyor technology and as a provider of new robotics applications and industrial services. Under the umbrella of the intermediate holding company Hörmann Intralogistics, the division unites Hörmann Logistik with its subsidiaries, the sister companies Klatt Fördertechnik, Hörmann Logistik Systeme and Hörmann Services with its subsidiaries.

This article appeared in materialfluss 10/22.