As the results of the annual IFOY Awards approach, Forkliftaction News shares the jury findings in the Integrated Warehouse Solution category. In this category, the jury, including Forkliftaction News editor Allan Leibowitz, considered submissions on two solutions.

SSI Schäfer: Ikea Project Flat Pack Picking

Ikea operates Germany's largest customer order distribution centre in Dortmund. Together with long-standing partner SSI Schäfer, Ikea has successfully relieved its employees of heavy physical work. Heavy and large items are palletised in a volume-optimised manner with the help of the new picking module from SSI Schäfer, which frees employees from strenuous work. At the same time, optimal packing patterns for the order pallets are automatically generated.

The introduction of this sustainable, innovative picking concept was preceded by a concept study and proof-of-concept, starting in 2017. By means of a test installation and subsequent simulation, Ikea put SSI Schäfer's flat-pack picking system, implemented for the first time at the Dortmund site, through its paces - and found it to be effective. The go-live started in April 2021. Both the heterogeneous range of articles and the large proportion of heavy and bulky articles were a particular challenge here. It turned out that of the approximately 12,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) located in the distribution centre (DC), about 10 per cent, i.e. 1,200, can be handled fully automatically. These are usually the so-called "fast-moving items".

The goal of the four gantry robots, which are supported by two small gantry robots outside the actual picking area, was to relieve the employees of heavy tasks by means of automated gantry picking. Each of the four gantry robots, with its 16 suction cups that grip the packaged goods from above, and the cameras at the four corners, has a theoretical (technical) picking performance of 70 to 80 picks per hour. This makes the four robots the fastest link in the entire system. Together, the gantry robots can handle a maximum of 312 picks; in real operation, they currently average 200 picks per hour. Intermediate layers on the individual packages that get in the way of the fast lifting and transporting process of the packages are reliably detected and removed.

IFOY Test Verdict
According to Ikea's own information, the new system enables the company to handle about 3,000 more customer orders per week than before. This is a great advantage because customer orders tend to be smaller, but the quantity is significantly higher. In times of e-commerce, more and more customers have their Ikea purchases delivered and also set up. However, SSI Schäfer's sophisticated flat-pack picking solution can also be adapted to a wide range of different SKUs outside the furniture industry and is therefore highly interesting for other industries as well.

Still: Automated Warehouse extension at Hase Safety Gloves

With the help of Still, Hase Safety Gloves has expanded the system of its automated warehouse and made the processes more efficient – without disrupting ongoing operations. Although four to five jobs were replaced by automating the system, 15 new jobs were created at the same time by expanding the warehouse by 200%.

Eighty employees, 70 of them at the headquarters in Jever, take care of incoming and outgoing work safety clothing at Hase Safety Gloves, which mainly arrives by container from the Far East. Of the 12,000 sqm of warehouse space at Hase, around 7,000 sqm is now automated, and of the total 13,000 storage spaces in the warehouse, just under 7,000 spaces fall under automation. A 10,000 sqm photovoltaic system on the roof is also used to charge the forklifts used in the warehouse. Hase successfully operates according to the "mixed operations" principle: forklifts and staff interact and the use of protective fences has been deliberately dispensed with.

When employees place a filled pallet on a place in the staging lane after goods receipt, this simultaneously means a transport order for a Still unit, which goes off to the warehouse or cross-docking directly to goods issue. At Hase, there is automatic whole stock removal, but also manual order picking.

The pallet first goes through a ‘contour check’: a gate with a laser curtain that eliminates tolerances of the pallet so that the automatic warehouse does not store a "brake block". If an error is detected, the pallet is immediately forwarded to the “not right” location and the problem is evaluated. Hase uses three automated MX-X narrow-aisle stackers and six EXV-SF high-lift trucks of the latest generation, all of which are equipped with Still's iGo Systems automation kit. The EXVs pick up the sorted palletised goods at the goods-in location and take them to the transfer rack in the narrow-aisle warehouse, where they are picked up by one of the automated MX-X units and stored in the assigned bin location. For retrieval, this process happens in reverse order. Once the AGVs have done their work, they automatically move to their waiting position.

One of the novelties for Hase is a changeover aisle in the middle of the system, which, together with a spray wall, replaces the otherwise necessary firewall and enables the forklifts to move simultaneously from one racking aisle to another without having to return to the beginning of the racking. In the manual area, the forklifts always run in single-shift operation. Overnight, they are then autonomously recharged according to the opportunity charging principle, using lead-acid batteries, which are more economical than lithium-ion batteries in this application. The racking aisles at Hase can be much narrower than is normally the case: compared to the use of high-rack forklifts with swivel reach forks, the MX-Xs equipped with telescopic forks require significantly less space, which has a beneficial effect on storage density and capacity.

Because the overseas containers from Bremerhaven are not only delivered during the day, but also in the evening, it is an advantage for Hase that with the reorganisation of the automatic warehouse, goods can now be stored automatically in the evening hours or at night without the need for personnel. This means that the existing single-shift operation can continue to be maintained.

IFOY test conclusion: With its automation solution, Still has brought Hase up to state of the art and made it fit for the future. With the iGo automated warehouse solution implemented at Hase, other medium-sized companies can also streamline their processes and bring them up to date. Automation, and this has been impressively demonstrated by Still, is a topic for (almost) any size of company.