Wentronic

Efficient shuttle technology
with up to 4-deep storage of cartons

Wentronic GmbH is a mid-size family-owned company, based in Brunswick, Germany. This distributor of accessories for consumer electronics has over 13,000 individual articles in stock. Besides international business over a trading network, Wentronic is a reliable OEM partner in the automotive industry.

Design criteria

For organizational and capacity reasons, Wentronic decided towards modern warehousing, order picking and conveyor technology. Utilizing new economic processes, together with enhanced IT operations and organizational structures, a considerable increase in performance and capacity has been achieved.

The solution

The newly built logistics center provides now 8,000 m² storage space, which is twice as much as before. The core of the new distribution center is the shuttle storage system. The racking structure – 15 m high and 60 m long – provides space for about 61,400 flexible locations. This performance is achieved by an up to 4-deep storage for the cartons, with carton dimensions, incl. tolerances, of 230 x 230 x 150 mm and 685 x 440 x 440 mm (l/w/h).

In each of the five aisles, three vario.sprinter shuttles are operated; these shuttles, which are storing in and out the differently sized cartons, are transferred with elevators to the individual storage levels. The optimizer load handling device pulls up to two width-varying cartons at the same time onto the transport platform of the shuttle, for variable and mixed storage.

The cartons handled are either complete cartons for shipping, or they contain goods for the shelf rack order picking area (B and C articles), which is located underneath the shuttle storage. The shelf rack system is divided into five order picking and sorting areas, from where operators pick (»paperless«) the items and create path-optimized batches, placed on order picking trolleys. The articles are then set, according to a Put-to-Light system, into order-related shelves in the sorting rack. On the other side of the sorting rack, operators, supported by Pickby- Light displays, pick the requested goods into shipping cartons, thus completing the orders. This way, up to 600 customer-specific cartons are packed per hour.

The psb selektron warehouse management system is interfaced to the high-level ERP system NAVISON.

The psb system is responsible for the warehouse management of specific areas and controls the material flow of the conveyor system according to the transport orders defined by the warehouse management system. This includes, if necessary, that sequences are observed and provides for keeping orders together.

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