Westfalia

As the old paperless order-picking system of Bedford Fleischwaren GmbH + Co. KG no longer satisfied future requirements and the storage capacity had become insufficient,     Westfalia Storage Systems was asked to provide a new logistics solution by the meat products manufacturer from Lower Saxony.

The choice fell on the so-called "Westfalia MiniLoad Compact System". Its key benefit is optimising costs and performance potential to be specifically found in the storage and order picking of small parts. Another major advantage is the complex order handling possible with the Westfalia system: It copes with higher incoming order rates for small quantities and a wide variety of articles while offering maximum transparency, speed and flexibility.

Involving almost 20,000 container positions, it is literally a meaty matter in Bedford's existing premises. Four storage and retrieval vehicles manage the warehouse strictly according to FiFo principles, while interfacing with the Westfalia inventory management system. In the order picking zone, where paperless assembly of the mixed containers takes place, intelligent picking bogies ensure fast picking for the containers to be dispatched according to the "man to materials" principle. Here a SAP interface to the warehouse management computer guarantees a continuous paperless flow of materials and full data transparency.

Besides 100% transparency in terms of stocks, the new MiniLoad system offers Bedford greater flexibility in particular. Orders for large quantities as well as batch size 1 become an extremely efficient affair thanks to Westfalia's fast Satellite technology and precise control of operatives according to order levels. An investment in the future that has already paid off for Bedford.