The sales company for kindergarten materials was founded in 2002 as a one-man business. Back then, company founder Manfred Kurth drove around the country with a van full of toys. Since then, the company has grown quickly and steadily. Today, with over 50 employees, it sells around 12,500 different items from well-known German and European manufacturers. These include play, craft and consumable materials, games of skill and movement, furniture and furnishings. And the expansion continues, "because our market is growing continuously in view of the new daycare centers and crèches that are being created," says Dominik Kurth, son of the company founder and part of the management team. "Especially as more and more private individuals are also ordering from us." In order to remain true to its motto - fast, convenient and inexpensive - in the face of increasing demand, Jetzt kommt Kurth GmbH & Co. KG has now combined its logistics space, which was previously spread across three warehouses, and its administration at a new company location.

"The new warehouse is not only around three and a half times larger than the previous three, it is also state of the art," emphasizes Kurth. And in every respect. Modern packing lines and conveyor technology, new hardware and software such as hand-back scanners, multi-order picking and a first-in-first-out warehouse strategy increase efficiency through shorter distances and improved traceability, among other things. Great importance was attached to ergonomics during the planning and construction of the new company site. This is reflected in height-adjustable desks and packing stations, among other things.

A clear warehouse structure and systematic labeling of storage locations and load carriers also play a key role in shortening distances. Here Jetzt kommt Kurth ... relied on the expertise of ONK. The Cologne-based specialist offers consulting, planning, sampling, production and assembly from a single source. "An ONK employee first looked at the conditions on site and we were able to present our wishes and goals," says Kurth. "Together, we then developed the final solution for labeling our containers and the storage locations in our racking system. We were able to test in advance how the labels harmonize with our system using samples provided. ONK then installed the labels we had produced."

To provide a quick overview in the warehouses, ONK first numbered the individual rows of shelves with aisle signs so that they were visible from afar. In a second step, each of the almost 9,000 rack locations was marked with a barcode label. In the high-bay area, Jetzt kommt Kurth ... opted for colored multi-level labels. They are affixed to the lowest crossbar and show all the storage locations above. In contrast to classic white man-down labels, each shelf level on this multi-level label is not only assigned a barcode or QR code with the respective storage location coordinate, but also an individual color. Individual labels with the same code and color as the multi-level label are attached to the storage locations from the second height traverse upwards. This allows the order picker to quickly and accurately distinguish between the different levels when looking upwards, scan them from the floor and navigate to the required level using a forklift or industrial truck.

ONK has also adapted the more than 21,000 container labels to the specific needs of Jetzt kommt Kurth .... The information on the container type is printed in reverse on the label and outlined with a black frame so that the order pickers can identify the different containers at a glance. In addition, the labels are optimally readable by both the back-of-hand scanners and the scanners of the conveyor technology and are protected against mechanical stress because they are provided with a protective laminate. The film is non-reflective and can be scanned without any problems. "Both the barcode labels for the shelf locations and for our containers, which are tailored precisely to our needs, are extremely legible and harmonize extremely well with our entire system," concludes Kurth.