Press release – Supply Chain Automation
Floor-free storage and retrieval machine (SRMs) will bring Sika Chemie more flexibility and special logistics software will facilitate higher throughput for the Zollern engineering company – Westfalia talks about current projects at the CeMAT
Borgholzhausen, Hanover, 28 April 2008 - At this year’s CeMAT, Westfalia will be presenting the latest hardware and software systems for logistics automation along the whole supply chain to the trade fair public. The focus is on current projects involving floor-free storage and retrieval machine (SRMs) at Sika, a Swiss chemicals company in Düdingen (Fribourg), and special Savanna.net software modules for order picking and quality control. Thus, at the Zollern engineering company in Herbertingen (Baden-Württemberg), Savanna.net will control an automatic logistics system which combines a pallet storage system and a small parts warehouse for providing just-in-time assembly. Westfalia will be exhibiting in Hall 27, Stand H 24 at this year’s CeMAT.
Floor-free storage and retrieval machines give Sika flexibility and allow it to dispense with finished goods warehouses
In cooperation with the Swiss planning office Hanhart, Westfalia has created an innovative logistics system for SIKA AG’s new adhesives plant in Düdingen, Fribourg. The high-bay warehouse with approximately 500 pallet spaces has two tunnels which connect the warehouse with the bottling and dispatch area in a space-saving design. The innovative system is aimed at creating flexibility: four vertical elevators, extensive carton and pallet-conveying technology, palletizing robots, AGV vehicles, a special floor-free storage and retrieval machine (SRM) with a turning and sliding fork and two floor-free storage and retrieval machines ensure a swift and smooth material flow by working in tandem with fork-lift trucks and hand lifting trucks. As the system makes optimum use of all spaces and areas, the company will also save energy and gain flexibility at peak production times and additional capacities. The system will be going into full operation in the next few days. “The system will give Sika maximum supply reliability for production, bottling and dispatch. The two floor-free storage and retrieval machines can even overtake each other in the air, intersect and cross two tunnels integrated in the high-bay warehouse. Sika handles all goods on a just-in-time basis and does not require a finished goods warehouse for adhesives. We are very proud of the initial references with the new technology, which has already won an innovation prize this year”, says Matthias Upmeyer, Managing Partner of Westfalia.
The combination of automated small parts warehouse, high-bay pallet warehouse and logistics software will allow Zollern to achieve effective quality control and provide just-in-time assembly
Another innovative Westfalia project is being used for assembly supply at the extended production plant of the Zollern engineering company in Herbertingen, Sigmaringen. Zollern produces gearing and winches for cranes, wind energy plants and other industrial applications at this plant.
The Savanna.net logistics software controls the automated warehouse – a combination of high-bay pallet warehouse and small parts warehouse – and integrates it into the overall production and assembly process. For this project, the software developers will extend the Savanna.net modules for order-picking, quality control and the truck guidance system with special tools. Westfalia and Zollern jointly defined an exact software requirement profile in advance within the scope of a detailed process and function analysis. Savanna.net manages a sophisticated testing process for all manner of drawing parts requiring official approval. The software automatically assigns the parts to be tested to suitable testing stations and qualified testers. The warehouse management software ensures that the batches are processed in full and effectively for quality control. It combines the correct containers from the small parts warehouse and pallets from the high-bay warehouse at up to six picking locations on a to-order basis.
Savanna.net will also facilitate 24-hour remote maintenance of the logistics system at Zollern. The warehouse with five high-bay warehouses and two small parts warehouse aisles will facilitate just-in-time assembly supply. “We are going to combine a small parts warehouse with a high-bay pallet warehouse at the Zollern engineering company. Special modules in our Savanna.net logistics software control the system, which will have an extremely efficient material flow. The system gives Zollern a significantly higher warehouse capacity and a much higher processing speed for supplying production, especially due to more effective quality control”, comments Upmeyer on the second project highlighted at the CeMAT.
Westfalia Logistics Solutions GmbH & Co. KG: CeMAT, Hall 27, Stand H 24
Westfalia will be exhibiting in Hall 27, Stand H 24 at this year’s CeMAT in Hanover. The company will be presenting logistics solutions for automation along the whole supply chain from the Storage Systems, Loading Systems and Logistics Software divisions and its subsidiary Transstore.
About Westfalia
Westfalia is a specialist in supply chain automation. The company plans, produces and installs automatic warehousing, conveying and order-picking systems (e.g., high-bay warehouses). The automation along the whole supply chain includes the control and IT connection of systems with logistics software, such as the in-house product Savanna.net. Not only that, Westfalia also links in-house and transport logistics (e.g., by means of automatic loading and unloading systems for lorries, such as SpeedLoader, or automatic load protection systems, such as Airprotect). Maintenance, modernisation and extension of systems guarantee long-term customer partnerships. In its over 35-year history, Westfalia has implemented more than 650 automatic logistics systems worldwide. The headquarters of the proprietor-managed family business are located in Borgholzhausen between Bielefeld and Osnabrück. Approximately 300 employees work at the plants in Europe and the USA.
Westfalia on the internet
www.westfaliaeurope.com
www.savanna.com
www.westfaliacarpark.com
www.westfaliausa.com
Westfalia Logistics Solutions GmbH & Co. KG
Corporate Press Office - Christian Meyer
E-mail: c.meyer[at]WestfaliaEurope.com
Tel. +49 (0)5425 808 907 - Fax +49 (0) 5425 808 901
Industriestrasse 11 – 33829 Borgholzhausen – Germany
