Automation of the high bay warehouses

The Germania company is one of the most renowned and well-known manufacturers of high quality furniture on the German market. The preparation of the furniture for shipment, order picking and loading before transportation take place at the distribution centre in Schlangen, nearby Paderborn.

The centre is equipped with a fully automated high bay warehouse with a capacity of about 40-50 thousand assortment items. It is capable of shipping 5-6 thousand products within 24 hours. At the same time, the average number of „picks” is very low, which is related to a great variety of articles. Inside the warehouse, the furniture placed on EURO pallets is transported by means of 8 automatic stacking machines with a lifting capacity up to 1000 kg, 5 automatic trucks and a network of belt conveyors. The packaging of packaged pallets intended for shipment is taken over by two “Oktopus” carousel wrapping machines. The centre is serviced by a team of hardy 6-10 employees.

Unfortunately, the automatic warehouse management system initially implemented by a German IT company could not meet the requirements of the Client. Until the year 2001, the average capacity of about 1-2 thousand assortment items per day was achieved. In this difficult situation Germania addressed the Macrix company with an order to re construct the existing management system in order to achieve the capacity of 5 thousand pieces of furniture per day.

The reconstruction was performed successfully, thus, all the intended objectives were achieved. After the provision and implementation of the new automatic management system by Macrix, the centre achieved its full capacity, which was confirmed by subsequent analyses (carried out by „Simplan" company in cooperation with the Transport and Logistics Institute of the Dortmund University). In the following project which was completed in August 2007, the organisation was further optimised in accordance with the needs of the Client. The automation of the high bay warehouse in Schlangen is one of our best references in the field of automation of logistic processes.