Feature Warehousing & storage
Bin intelligence powers porsche spare parts store
A total of 168,000 bins and trays, supplied by BITO, are used in the automated small parts store of German sports car manufacturer Porsche, at its central spare parts warehouse in Sachsenheim. They provide a standardised basis for handling small parts in the global supply of spare parts
orsche supplies spare parts to around 700 dealers throughout the world from its central spare parts warehouse in Sachsenheim. More than 70 per cent of the 80,000 SKUs are small parts, which are suitable for storing in bins. Main contractor Witron Logistik + Informatik GmbH has installed an automated small parts store for these items with around 170,000 storage positions. BITO Lagertechnik Bittmann, Nuneaton-based BITO Storage Solutions’ German parent company, was involved in the project as an experienced partner for the steel- work of automated small parts stores. BITO not only manufactured and erected the storage shelves but also pro- vided the peripherals in the form of eight sequencer towers, a steel plat- form, gravity roller conveyors and finally the picking stations and shelv- ing units from BITO’s Ergo tubular system range. In parallel with the implementation of the automated small parts store by the main contractor, Porsche procured the bins and trays, which have a base area of 600 x 400mm, independently. Here too, BITO, with its XL containers, was the supplier of choice. A total of 92,000 bins with a height of 270mm and 45,000 units with a height of 170mm were purchased.
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size (base areas) to enable us to opti- mise the operation of the conveyor equipment. From an ergonomic point of view, we specified a maximum weight of 15kg for each container. This enabled lightweight bins to be chosen.” Different heights have been used in order to make optimum use of the warehouse capacity.
Jörg Reinelt, designer of the auto- mated small parts store at Porsche AG in Sachsenheim, says: “The objective was to standardise on a common bin
The bins are made of grey PP (polypropylene). Barcodes are affixed at two exactly defined positions. They have open handgrips on the narrow sides, and the high designs are pro- vided with water drainage holes. The bins are used only for storage in the automated small parts store and are not dispatched to other locations. However, even the 170mm high containers are still too large for very heavy material and parts with low inventory levels. For this reason, use is also made of RL-KLT containers of Type 3147 (200 x
Jörg Reinelt, spare parts logistics planning for Porsche AG Central Spare Parts Warehouse in Sachsenheim, with a BITO tray and four plugged-in fixing elements
300mm) and 4147 (300 x 400mm). As the base area of these does not match the standard containers used, BITO also supplied an additional 31,000 trays. These each accommodate two or four KLT bins. The use of subdivided containers was deliberately avoided, as the individual KLTs have many advan- tages when it comes to handling. The trays have the same base as the bins and can be equipped with fixing ele- ments so that the KLTs remain in posi- tion even at higher conveyor speeds and when being transferred out. Various packing materials, ranging from paper bags to cartons and con- tainers with hinged lids, are used in the areas of order picking and the packing of outgoing goods. All these dispatch packages are transported on trays and held in position by means of simple and at the same time flexible standard fixing elements.
One thing was particulary important for Jörg Reinelt: “BITO’s intelligent solution impressed us, as the fixing elements can remain on the trays even when they are stacked. This enables us to store the trays without any prob- lems in an automatic buffer until they are needed again for order picking.” This project demonstrates particu- larly well how quality in all aspects is also a strongly competitive factor, which is a large undertaking for all concerned. BITO was therefore not only able to impress with its technol- ogy and its advisory service but also with clever detailed solutions for the gravity roller conveyors for feeding the packing stations (manual vibrator so that even very light bins do not stick; single foot unlocking to release indi- vidual lagging containers).
ndigo Software, a provider of warehouse management systems for over 20 years, launched its latest product 'Indigo WMS for IBM i' at the IMHX exhibition at Birmingham's NEC in March. Indigo WMS is a rich Warehouse Management System which takes the power and reliability of your IBM system, and puts it into the hands of your warehouse operators. Real time and accurate data capture into the Indigo WMS is said to ensure improved stock and inventory accuracy, greater customer service and improved margins on your bottom line. Indigo WMS is designed to work with many IBM i ERP systems including Infor XA, Lawson, SAP, Oracle JDE, Infor LX, PRMS and many more iseries ERPs and bespoke solutions. Indigo Software T: 0191 3756700
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The same applied to the individu- ally matched delivery of bins and trays for the move to the new warehouse. In order to avoid double handling, at the appropriate time BITO delivered a number of bins, which had been deter- mined in advance, directly to each of the previous warehouse locations that were about to be closed. Here, the goods were removed from standard shelving and pallet storage systems and packed straight into the plastic bins intended for the purpose and transported by truck to the central spare parts warehouse in Sachsenheim. While an outline plan specified the weekly delivery quanti- ties, the delivery locations were only determined a few days in advance depending on the progress of the move. BITO also overcame this logisti- cal challenge without any errors.
Bito Storage Systems T: 02476 388852
www.bito.co.uk Enter 358
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