62 DC VELOCITY JANUARY 2016 www.dcvelocity.com
specialreport WAREHOUSE AUTOMATION
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that are stored on pallets in the MPS.
The pallets are retrieved from storage via
11 stacker cranes and then shuttled to
20 pick-and-pack stations. The shuttle
delivers the source pallet to a worker at
a processing station, which is flanked by
four order pallets, two on each side. The
worker then removes the needed items
from the source pallet and places them
into the appropriate cartons according
to directions delivered via a pick-to-light
system.
In some instances, products needed
for orders may only be available in the
OPS tote system. When that occurs, the
picking process starts in the OPS goods-to-person area. The items are picked
into totes that are then transported to
workers at the MPS pick-and-pack area,
where workers consolidate them with
items from the MPS onto the order
pallets.
Order pallets heading to domestic
locations are strapped and conveyed to
one of two areas where they are staged
for shipping. Some of these will ship
the same day, while others will head to
a ground bulk warehouse where they’re
held until their shipping dates.
Meanwhile, order pallets destined for
export are conveyed to a system known
as the Extended Pallet System (XPS),
which is an automated high-bay pallet storage system that acts as a shipping buffer. The system, which measures 27. 6 meters (90.6 feet) high and
52 meters (167.3 feet) long, consists of
10,420 pallet positions served by four
cranes. Products are held there while
they await loading onto delivery trucks.
Items packed into the Gaylord boxes at
the OPS picking stations are also stored
in the XPS buffers.
MAXIMIZING UPTIME
As with any highly automated system,
febi bilstein’s new setup carries an obvi-
ous risk: If a major part goes down, it can
create bottlenecks up and down the line
as well as delays for customers waiting
for parts. For that reason, redundancy
has been built into the site’s storage sys-
tems and other automated equipment,
so that products can be sourced from a
number of different locations and deliv-
ered to more than one workstation.
Furthermore, as long as operations at
the Ennepetal facility are up and run-
ning, there is always someone available
to respond quickly to any problem in the
system. “These people wear smartphones
strapped to their wrists. If there are any
problems, they are alerted and become
first responders,” explains Wortmann.
“(The system) was a huge investment, so
we have to keep it running.”
A crew of 14 Witron technicians is
also working on site for maintenance
and to serve as second-level support to
assist the first-level response crew. These
technicians are trained on the specif-
ic components of each system. A final
support stage is the help desk at Witron
headquarters in Parkstein, Germany.
Wortmann says that febi bilstein is
very pleased with its automated logistics
center. The technology is well suited to
the company’s business processes and
provides the desired accuracy and processing speed. “Looking back, I can say
that with a manual system, we wouldn’t
have been able to cope with our business
growth,” he says. “The automated solution with Witron as the integrator was
the right solution for us.”
Editor’s note: To see our exclusive video
of febi bilstein’s automated solutions—
including the goods-to-person picking systems—in action, go to moveitshow.com.
