Phoenix Contact, a global player in the field of electrical engineering, electronics and automation technology, has announced plans to expand its automatic small parts warehouse (AS/RS), located at its headquarters in Blomberg, Germany.
The goal is to significantly increase the dynamics and efficiency of the logistics location. More than 30,000 items are already available for next day delivery, if ordered by 4pm.
The implementation is taking place during ongoing operation in the existing facility.
The order for the design and realisation of the project was awarded to WITRON Logistik + Informatik GmbH.
Following the completion of the expansion in the third quarter of 2020, many thousands of packages for small volume orders and totes for larger orders will be shipped on a day-to-day basis to customers and sales companies located in more than 50 countries.
The expansion of the logistics capacities is needed urgently, due to the permanently-growing small order business and customers’ demand for ever faster delivery times.
Increase In Pick Performance
Ten additional multi-functional pick workstations (31 pick workstations in total), developed according to demanding and ergonomic specifications, will also be implemented.
Depending on the order size, every workstation will pick into totes or directly into the corrugated shipping box. Thus, it is possible to pick more than 2,000 order lines per hour, increasing pick performance by 50%.
WITRON’s IT system determines the correct shipping unit independently. Various checking mechanisms and innovative terminal dialogs will guide the logistics operator through the process without errors.
The storage capacity is also being increased, with further automated OPS aisles with 60,000 tote storage locations (253,000 tote storage locations in total), as well as nine additional stacker cranes (36 stacker cranes in total).
Parallels To Online Business
While customers of Phoenix Contact have always ordered in large quantities, today, they order in a much more demand-oriented manner from an assortment of more than 30,000 different products.
In addition to next day delivery, customers generally expect pre-packaging of the goods as well as Phoenix Contact to take up additional storage and logistics services.
These changed order dynamics have resulted in a significant increase in pick volume. Consequently, an additional redundant module will expand the system, designed with two parallel and redundant OPS modules.
Thanks to this, the system can ensure a very high degree of reliability, as every item in the assortment is available in every module. Thus, Phoenix Contact can guarantee a high delivery service and maximum adherence to delivery dates even in case of errors, maintenance, servicing, and unplanned volume fluctuations.
Partner For Almost 20 Years
For almost two decades, the electronics experts from Phoenix Contact have worked successfully with WITRON, based in the Upper Palatinate region of Germany.
Phoenix Contact's logistics centre in Blomberg started productive use in 2001. The core element is the Order Picking System (OPS). Its size and processes were successively adapted by WITRON in various expansion and modernisation phases, in a flexible manner, to meet changing market requirements with high agility.
The expansion, announced at the end of April 2018, is an investment in the sustainable cost-efficiency of the company's logistics processes.
For more information, visit www.witron.de
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