Hella

Efficient warehousing and order picking technology for the production of interior lighting systems

Hella Innenleuchten-Systeme, a Global Player with innovative lighting and electronics systems for automobiles, is a prime supplier to the automotive industry.

Design criteria

By reorganizing the existing order picking warehouse in Wembach/Germany, material flow, order picking and dispatch should be optimized through efficient, up-to-date warehousing and logistics technology.

The solution

The items delivered to the receiving area are checked, and, in transport bins, manually fed onto a goods-receiving conveyor (I-point). Registration in the bookkeeping system and quality control are carried out via the HOST system, and the quality assurance procedure, respectively.

Then, the bins are transferred to the automated small parts warehouse (4 aisles), which represents the core of the system installation. Due to the depth of the racking, up to 4 bins (combination of bins of 600 x 400 mm and bins of 400 x 300 mm) can be stored in one location (i.e. 4-deep). Storage and retrieval is effected by runloader AS/RS miniload cranes with multiloader load handling units. This allows for individual access to each bin stored.

The connection of the 4 order picking stations, retrieval, and the delivery of bins from production to the automated small parts warehouse, are carried out via the psb material handling equipment (MHE). The bins, ready for being shipped, are transported to dispatch via similar conveying technology. The psb Warehouse Management System selektron WMS, in conjunction with the Material Flow Control system selektron MFC and the Field Level Control system selektron FLC, organizes the interaction of the runloader AS/RS miniload cranes, and the MHE system.