Gratis, the number one in the cosmetics sector in Turkey, supplies its drugstore branches with 30,000 products. The company is represented in 79 cities with more than 600 stores. The product range extends from everyday consumer goods to cosmetics, personal care products, household goods and baby products.

"All storage and work areas of the free distribution center are networked on different floors of the building with a high-performance conveyor system," explains Mehmet Toy, project manager at Klinkhammer. The main aim was to achieve greater flexibility in order handling. Retail workstations had to be able to be quickly converted into e-commerce workstations in order to avoid bottlenecks thanks to a consistent, coherent conveyor technology concept. "At the same time, ongoing operations were not to be impaired by the extensions," emphasizes Mehmet Toy. The heart of the system is a sorter system with 42 picking and packing stations. The sorter distributes all the bins to the workstations according to the store. There, the bins are emptied and picked and packed onto trolleys or pallets using put-to-light. 1000 put-to-light modules for shelf and pallet picking are installed.

Automation of material flows

An additional shelved warehouse with picking stations on several levels was built especially for e-commerce. Ordered items are picked into totes and transferred to the tote conveyor system on each level. After quality assurance, all bins and cartons are separated by the sorter depending on the store and transferred to ergonomically arranged work stations. Once the bins have been emptied, the goods are packed in cartons and plastic bags and either stored in trolleys or picked onto pallets.

The Klinkhammer material flow computer, which communicates with the free warehouse management system from High Jump, controls the automatic transportation of the containers to the correct destination. All load carriers on the conveyor system can be clearly localized at any time in the visualization software. The integrated sensors and drives in the transport control system help to ensure that faults can be detected and rectified. Services that previously required an on-site visit can now be carried out remotely using the KlinkVision system visualization. All Klinkhammer systems are connected to the remote service.

Facts and figures

• 2 km of container conveyor technology links all warehouse areas
• Sorter with 42 picking and packing stations
• 1000 put-to-light modules for rack and pallet picking
• Material flow control and Klinkhammer visualization system
• 4 lifts with heights of 7 m, 10 m and 15 m connect the storeys
• 40 t steel construction