Efficient order consolidation system at WMF lowers costs and shortens order lead times
WMF is a leading international supplier of products and services with the focus on tableware and kitchenware in the consumer and institutional segments. Since generations WMF tableware and kitchenware have been appreciated because of their functional and design qualities.
In order to keep up with the increase in turnover WMF decided to invest in their distribution centre in Geislingen (Germany). The distribution centre consists of multiple areas for stock keeping as well as order picking. In these areas the products are picked in cartons. The use of multiple order picking areas created a need for consolidation of the cartons because products are picked at different speeds or are planned at different times. Other challenges were reduction of the logistic costs by optimal packing of the cartons and shortening of the order lead times.
WMF decided to invest in a QUICKSTORE HDS shuttle system of Vanderlande Industries because a traditional miniload AS/RS was not sufficient to fulfill the requirements. The QUICKSTORE HDS uses 3 shuttles in an aisle. Cartons on trays are stored on total 6 levels, whereby every shuttle is dedicated to 2 levels. Because of the high throughput of the system, the total number of storage locations can be limited to 612. From the QUICKSTORE HDS system cartons are transported to one of the four packing stations. Here the products are packed efficiently in order to reduce transport cost in the downstream supply chain. Finally the products are transported by a conveyor system and a sortation system to the right shipping lanes.
With the order consolidation system WMF can ship more than 750 orders with over 1420 products per day. The QUICKSTORE HDS is however not at its limits with this performance. In the WMF project the system is designed to achieve a performance of 300 movements in and out per hour in one aisle. This performance can even be increased by adding extra shuttles.
