material flow 03 In the
material flow 03 In the goods issue area transverse shuttle complement the conveyor system also implemented the conveyor system with nearly two kilometers in length, the storage and retrieval machines as well as the control technology and implemented a warehouse management system (Image 01). The new ICT plant is already designed for production increases. SSI Schaefer already considered the option for another expansion phase with additional 30,000 storage positions. The new warehouse was handed over on schedule with all requirements fulfilled and tests passed in autumn 2010. High performance in a small space The 36 m high, 9 aisles HBW (Image 02) provides approximately 60,000 pallet storing positions. The existing external warehouses were closed and their stock was integrated into the new plant. One step further, the processes were optimized. The WMS now controls the entire goods receiving and shipping functions, yard monitoring, picking, and production disposal. In addition, the warehouse is equipped with functions for a fork-lift guidance system in order to provide efficient, data-transmission controlled goods-to-man order picking. “All in all, despite the limited space and tight time schedule this is an innovative logistics concept with which we were able to realize a plant according to all requirements for high system performance”, outlines Helmut Fluhrer, project manager at SSI Schaefer. The new conveyor technology directly connects the warehouse with the production lines. With the help of the conveyor system, the pallets get into the high-bay warehouse. Previously, they are checked for their storage stability as well as quality and then registered. The automatic, clad-rack HBW is the centerpiece of the new plant. Around 500 different goods are stored at the higher levels of the warehouse on Euro- and Euro- Chep-pallets there, single- as well as doubledeep. Nine storage and retrieval machines with two telescopic forks each move through the racks at a speed of up to 230 m/min and a lifting speed of 70 m/min. That way, up to 225 pallets can be safely stored per hour. Meanwhile, the stock removal is done via the bottom level. For that purpose the WMS activates the compilation of the delivery orders whereupon the storage and retrieval machines (SRM) start picking the required pallets. The pallets are either retrieved as couples, as double- or as single pallets. Here, the SRMs carry out around 375 retrievals per hour and are thus responsible for an entire throughput of around 600 pallets per hour. Then the storage and retrieval machines put the pallets on the pallet conveyor system at transfer points. The pallet conveyor system transports the goods, sorted by truck-loads, into the 2,450 m² large shipping building toward the goods-out section. The conveyor system (Image 03) with chain- and accumulating conveyors, rotary, roll, and gravity rollerconveyors, shuttle vehicles, and pallet stackers/de-stackers provides an efficient and smooth internal material flow. In front of the terminal point, three shuttle vehicles take over the pallets and distribute them to 40 allocation conveyors. Four conveyors are assigned to one gate. Here, only requested pallets are released. Nevertheless, all orders are checked again at the goods-out terminals. This provides more security and increases the quality of delivery. Thus, up to 460 pallets per hour can be loaded at the loading ramps of the shipping building; consequently around 15 truck loads can be shipped at the same time. “To increase efficiency even further, we installed a Yard Management System for ICT”, Fluhrer explains. It registers the incoming trucks and manages the loading and unloading so that the coordination efforts outside of the warehouse are also reduced to a minimum. This causes significantly less delays between the processes. Furthermore, waiting times for the trucks are also reduced to a minimum. Project specifications were accurately implemented It was a smooth and fair cooperation between the hygiene paper manufacturer and the intralogistics specialist during the whole building time. “All goods are now registered entirely and transparently. This allows 100 percent stock control”, according to Fluhrer. The result is convincing: transport and warehouse cost savings, time savings at order processing, quality increase by efficient, flexible and integrated processes – the pay-off period for their investments in the new warehouse was short for ICT. “With the new high-bay warehouse and optimized processes we were able to meet our objectives exactly as planned”, resumes Dariusz Drzazga. Photos: SSI Schaefer www.ssi-schaefer.com 32 f+h Intralogistics 3/2014
Warehousing voestalpine Krems Finaltechnik has built a high-bay warehouse for Baxter As part of its corporate strategy, the American pharmaceutical company Baxter has now also invested in intralogistics. As a result, a new logistics center with cold storage and a deep-freeze warehouse has been built in Vienna, Austria. The Austrian company voestalpine Krems Finaltechnik was entrusted with supplying and installing appropriate steel racks. The American group Baxter International Inc. is a globally active company in the healthcare industry with 60,500 employees worldwide and is specialized in the fields of medical products, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. It develops, manufactures and distributes products used for medical indications, such as hemophilia, immune diseases, infectious diseases, kidney diseases and traumas, as well as other chronic and acute illnesses. Austria is the Group’s largest site and the leading research headquarters of the Baxter Bioscience division worldwide. It employs over 4,400 people at its branch offices in Vienna and Orth an der Donau, Austria. At these sites, 22 products are manufactured to be exported to approximately 100 countries. Together with Baxter Innovations GmbH and Baxter Healthcare GmbH, Baxter AG is the Group’s third operating company in Austria and manufactures plasmatic and recombinant (biotechnologically manufactured) drugs, as well as vaccines for the Bioscience division. The company operates seven plasma centers in several Austrian states and is in charge of purchasing and collecting blood plasma on behalf of the Group. Moreover, the company’s largest plasma fractionation in Europe is also located in Vienna. Logistics at the site in Vienna In accordance with the Group’s strategy, the site in Austria will be further expanded and the company will invest in new factory equipment. This will entail an investment volume of more than 500 million euros. As part of these expansion measures, a new logistics center with a floor space of 7,000 m² has been built in Vienna. Its special feature is a temperature-controlled fully automatic high-bay warehouse. This About voestalpine Krems Finaltechnik implementation was entrusted to the intralogistics system provider Swisslog, based in Switzerland, which commissioned voestalpine Krems Finaltechnik GmbH to entrust the subsidiary of the voestalpine AG, which is specialized in the construction of high-bay warehouses, with the design, supply and installation of steel racks. Up to now, the products had been stored manually and in blocks in various places in Vienna. The new warehouse logistics concept is aimed at centralizing storage and expanding its capacity through automation. The new high-bay warehouse acts not only as a temporary storage for storing raw materials used in manufacturing and semifinished products but also as a shipping warehouse for finished products. The warehouse is divided into different temperature zones according to the needs of the various products: deep-freeze storage has a temperature of -30 °C, whereas cool storage has a temperature between 2 and 8 °C. The pallet rack, which measures 54 meters in length, 15 meters in width and 24.1 meters in height, has a capacity of about 4,200 storage locations. Single and double-deep pallets, as well as up to 1.2 ton Euro pallets as mixed pallets, are stored on 13 levels. The four aisles, one of which is in the deep-freeze warehouse, have different depths. A total of approximately 300 tons of steel were supplied by voestalpine Krems Finaltechnik for shelf construction. Text/Photo: Gisela Upmeyer, GMP/voestalpine www.voestalpine.com/finaltechnik voestalpine Krems Finaltechnik and Nedcon form the warehouse systems competency center for the voestalpine Group. Finaltechnik focuses on high performance product solutions for high rack stores, roof and wall bearing high rack systems for pallets, and construction and integration racks. Their many years of experience and cutting edge fabrication technologies enable them to supply highly regarded rack solutions worldwide. Over its 35 years of operations, voestalpine Krems Finaltechnik has implemented more than 700 high rack store projects and outfitted more than 1,000 construction and C+C markets. At its Krems factory, in the Wachau region, one of the most beautiful and fascinating areas of Austria, Finaltechnik employs a staff of 150. f+h Intralogistics 3/2014 33
