Initial situation
Nobilia produces fitted kitchens on an area of over 250,000 m² at its two plants in Verl (Plant I) and Kaunitz (Plant II). Both sites already had stock and picking warehouses for fronts, carcase parts, accessories and worktops.
However, due to continuous growth, the capacity limits had been reached. For this reason, the Kaunitz site was expanded to include a new logistics center for customer accessories, railing handles, assembly accessories, semi-formats and carcase reserve parts.
Solution
Unitechnik realized the automatic high-bay warehouse and the accessories/small parts warehouse (ZKL).
The ZKL was designed as a single-aisle shuttle warehouse with 40 levels. In order to be able to handle the high throughput, 9 laterally arranged lifts were provided.
Person-to-Goods (PTG) picking of frequently used handles and fittings is carried out from a total of 80 throughput channels, which are filled directly by the ZKL shuttle vehicles.
The bin conveyor system on two levels connects the warehouse and the PTG picking zones with the Goods-to-Person (GTP) picking stations and the packing stations.
UniWare takes over the material flow control as well as the bin management in the ZKL. The high throughput is made possible not only by the layout of the system, but also by UniWare's sophisticated storage and transport strategies. They are selected in such a way that picking and packing processes are synchronized according to time and order.
Replenishments for the ZKL and larger parts, such as railing handles, are stored in the 5-aisle high-bay warehouse. GTP picking stations as well as storage and retrieval sections are connected via a conveyor technology pre-zone.
