The first day was 8 January 2019: The modern high-bay warehouse of Uelzena at the Uelzen site was put into operation. With a height of 37m, it towers above other buildings on the premises.
Every day, approx. 60 trucks will deliver or pick up goods, which are stored on around 13,000 pallet spaces in various height categories. Due to the fully automated storage process, 1,300 pallets per day can be handled. All in all, the huge storage capacity will also benefit our customers.
The use of our own high-bay warehouse guarantees a high degree of independence from third parties and thus a high degree of security. Our own warehouse resources allow us to react quickly and flexibly to external circumstances. In this way, we can guarantee our customers even greater reliability and reduced risks.
The investment of €17 million will pay off both economically and ecologically: Environmental pollution is reduced because we save on long transport routes to and from several external warehouses that we have been using.
Extremely customer friendly
With the high-bay warehouse, we can meet high logistical requirements and be able to supply our customers quickly in the next few years. Our call times (just in time) for stored goods will be short and we have in place standardized processes such as fully automated labelling of dispatch labels, high turnover rate and constant transparency of stocks. This means higher turnover in terms of volume for our customers, which also leads to faster availability of the goods.
With these high standards we meet the qualitative requirements of our customers. These include air-conditioned storage, the very gentle transport of goods by fully automated racking units and conveyors and dimensional stability of the goods.
Storage operation starts in January
The starting operation comprises the storage of compliant products such as raw materials, packaging and semi-finished goods, which fulfil certain storage requirements and specifications. This process serves to stabilize the system.
Starting in March, storage and retrieval of finished goods will be added step-by-step.
“First of all, the material flow must be stable and the systems have to communicate smoothly with each other before we start storing finished goods,” explains Uwe Timm, Logistics Manager.
“The step-by-step procedure for both the storage of the products in the high-bay warehouse and withdrawal from external storage locations will accelerate the material flow processes and guarantee the highest degree of security. Our employees ensure high quality and smooth operation of the demanding processes in the independent warehouse operation.”
Successive withdrawal from external warehouses
Up until now, some external warehouses had to be used due to a lack of capacity. By June 2019, it is scheduled to gradually terminate these service providers and store goods autonomously. As a result, the current number of six external warehouses will be reduced to one external warehouse to be used as a back up for risk protection purposes. From the second half of 2019, the company will only operate its own warehouses such as the high-bay warehouse and the warehouses at the individual sites as well as one external
warehouse.