The usual sight in Westfalia systems is either telescopic forks for high-frequency access, or lifting and chain Satellites for particularly compact and material-friendly storage of higher loads. The Telescopic Satellite^® or Tele-SAT load handling attachment at Achilles is a custom-made product that has so far been used individually by individual customers of the intralogistics automation specialist. The telescopic fork is mounted on a Satellite^®. The technology hybrid of telescopic fork and Satellite^® designed and manufactured by Westfalia combines the advantages of single-user storage, fast and safe storage, transfer and retrieval with high access frequency, with the compact storage of high loads in a small space.

The storage topology is also adapted to the special processes and special design. The Satellite^® in the Achilles warehouse detaches itself from the SRM and moves along rails into additional "Satellite^® aisles" that branch off like comb tines. In Satellite^® warehouses, the load unit is usually placed by the Satellite^® directly from the SRM aisle onto the SAT rails in shelving compartments. In this case, the telescopic fork first extends into the additional Satellite^® aisles and places the load units to the left or right of it on the actual storage location in the shelving compartments. Or picks them up there. The middle of the Satellite^® aisles connects the SRM aisle with a roller chain conveyor for staging and transportation. From here, forklift trucks can lift the pallets from the entire roller chain conveyor section.

As with the short conveyor loop of the task with alignment station, a control station including a manual on-site panel and defective pallet display is connected in the transport area. Both conveyor technology areas in the warehouse periphery continuously check load units and eject defective load units from the system. This means that faults in the automated system are ruled out in advance. The robust and durable conveyor technology, designed for reliability, could be completely reused without replacement.

A new technology heart please: On the storage and retrieval machine, the service team replaced the old drives with more energy-efficient drives and inverter technology, modernized the laser distance measurement in the travel and lifting gear, the speed monitoring, the data transmission from the storage and retrieval machine to the conveyor technology and the warehouse execution system as well as the compartment fine positioning to a camera-supported system. The technicians and control professionals also replaced the power transmission on the lifting gear as well as the control cabinet and control panel in the traveling cabin, which was also equipped with an air conditioning unit for more even temperatures. The team also converted the communication between sensors and actuators from Profi-BUS to Profi-NET.

The intralogistics experts have brought the safety level up to date by completely overhauling the end position monitoring and access monitoring, including new personal protection barriers. The level of personal safety in the conveyor technology has also been increased thanks to the integrated safety scanners for monitoring the load units in front of the alignment stations.

At the same time, the software team replaced the previous warehouse management system from another provider with the latest version of the warehouse execution system (WES) Savanna.NET^® and linked its bundled warehouse management and warehouse controlling functionalities to the ERP system used by the Achilles Group. The IT and software package includes five client licenses, a current SQL server and Windows Server of the TERRA brand from WORTMANN AG. As additional peripherals, the intralogistics company also supplied two 2D wireless hand scanners that process all common barcodesand 2D barcodes such as PDF-417, Datamatrix or QR codes.

In contrast to the old system, operators now also have a dynamic grid at their disposal: "Instead of fixed lists, information can be filtered and sorted. The variants of views and queries have increased tenfold and the depth of information has increased significantly," says the software project manager. "In addition to article and pallet details or fill levels, the movements of the load units can now also be tracked, logs from the exchange with the ERP system or interruption times can be queried, with easy usability via the context menu."

"Overall, we have implemented a very straightforward WMS: This is because all retrieval orders from the single bin warehouse are picked. To do this, the ERP system marks each pallet that is removed from storage with a picking number. In this case, we did not have to implement a more complex logistical sequence or retrieval strategy." However, even the Savanna^® basic functions take warehouse management to a new level, says Middendorf: "After replacing the previous warehouse management system, employees now have an easy-to-use, more powerful WMS at their disposal. Our Warehouse Execution System has an impact on both system response times and logistical performance. The warehouse team at Achilles can accelerate work processes in intralogistics and make optimum use of storage locations. Customer processes can be implemented directly in the software, which is fully adaptable to customer processes."

"Once again, we have focused on good preparation so that the modernization period and the associated downtime of the SRM is as short as possible. To this end, we are bringing forward the coupling test of the host and the coupling tests between the PLC controller and the WES, combining SRM modernization and software implementation," says René Findling, explaining the proven modernization standards at Westfalia. At the end of 2024, the scheduled result was therefore: the SRM has been modernized electro-mechanically and system availability is once again guaranteed. The technology and safety technology are state of the art and meet all current regulations. The replacement of critical parts ensures the availability of spare parts.