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“We are able to satisfy customer demand very quickly
today,” Akers says.
And fortunately for Pepperl+Fuchs, the relocation to
Houston wasn’t complete when Hurricane Harvey hit. The
new DC had only been open for testing, so the firm was able
to keep filling orders from Cleveland while it repaired the
damage and readied for the hand-off.
HIGH-TECH HAVEN
Pepperl+Fuchs’ Houston DC measures 110,000 square feet,
the smallest of its three global DCs. Its operations feature
a massive AS/RS, pick-to-light systems, custom packaging
equipment, and a series of automated quality checks to
ensure order accuracy. For example, sensors in the system
weigh packages to detect errors, making sure the measurements for each box conform with the expected weight of the
items described in the order.
The three-aisle AS/RS has two pickup/dropoff locations
on the end of each aisle. A crane in the center of each aisle
serves racks to the right and left, retrieving and delivering
product to and from the end locations. The AS/RS is the
cornerstone of the facility’s picking and receiving process;
it has 18,000 storage locations, and today stores about 6,000
finished goods and 5,000 different raw materials. After they
are unloaded by workers, products are moved out of the
receiving area via a series of conveyors and are automati-
cally entered into the AS/RS. During picking, products are
automatically retrieved from the AS/RS and delivered to
picking stations, where pickers fill orders using a pick-to-
light system. Finished orders are placed on two- by one-foot
trays that are transported to packaging and shipping via the
conveyor system.
The Houston DC mirrors Pepperl+Fuchs’ Mannheim
and Singapore locations, creating a seamless approach to
picking and receiving across the organization, according
to Robin Stratthaus, logistics project manager at the new
facility. All three locations use SSI Schaefer’s AS/RS and the
systems are connected by the company’s ERP (enterprise
resource planning) system, so the interface is the same
whether you pick parts in Europe, Asia, or North America,
he explains. The difference is in the WMS. Houston uses a
different warehouse management and control system than
the other two locations, and the operation is also the only
one that uses Pepperl+Fuchs sensors to collect the data
that fuel the WMS. Pepperl+Fuchs leaders explain that
they wanted to show what their own sensors can do in an
automated system, which is why they needed a partner that
would be willing to re-engineer its systems to include their
sensors. SSI Schaefer was that partner.
“One of our requirements when doing vendor selection
