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Kronospan Schweiz AG products are
intended to be difficult to distinguish
from real wood and are aimed at
a demanding public, which means
that even more importance must be
attached to careful transport to avoid
scratches right from the start.
Against this background, store
managers began searching for a
suitable order-picking solution for their
Swiss production centre in Menznau,
near Lucerne, as early as 2013. They
offer a wide variety of decorative
wood materials in thicknesses of
between 8mm and 50mm, stored on
920 shelves in their equipment hall.
The boards, with dimensions of 2800
x 2070mm, weigh between 30kg and
278kg. About 100 orders are picked
per day here in a two-shift operation.
Every order received by 16:00 is sent
out on the next working day, and
the customers can even order single
boards. “We are the only centre
which offers the specialist trade
outlets customer-friendly individual
order-picking,” stresses Jürg Meier,
Kronospan commercial director.
The number of items in the order is
generally between 1 and 24, so about
21,000 picks are carried out per
annum.
Individual order-picking presented a
major challenge, particularly in view of
the high quality surfaces. “Sliding the
boards down from the stack is hardly
possible without scratches and it is
unreasonable to expect the employees
to lift them manually,” summarises
project manager Michael Hofstetter.
Moreover, the board stacks formed
for each order must line up exactly
so that when transported by truck or
train no damage occurs. With these
requirements, the company turned
to several solution providers and
considered fully and semi-automatic
approaches. “The fully automatic
solution was soon excluded for reasons
of cost, particularly as we wanted to
retain the existing support arm frame”,
Michael Hofstetter remembers.
At the end of the selection phase in
February 2014, Rohrer-Marti AG and
Hubtex launched into market a vacuum
lifting device using the order-picking
platform EZK 35. “As the only suppliers,
they were willing to adapt their existing
product with new solutions to our
special requirements and the prevailing
spatial conditions”, says Jürg Meier.
The EZK 35 platform has been
considerably expanded for the Swiss
contract. The order-picking platform,
delivered in July 2015, has automatic
shelf positioning and devices (currently
unique) for centring and tying the
boards to the truck. The entire process
is now carried out by a single order-
picker who no longer needs to leave
the EZK 35 to do so.
The order-picking process begins
with the input of the four-digit storage
position, which is on the delivery note,
together with the quantity ordered.
The first digit defines the aisle number,
the next two digits indicate the storage
rack and the fourth digit the shelf level.
The order-picker records the four
digits on the large touch panel of the
operating platform. The operator then
navigates directly and with precision
to their target. During this process,
the barcode strips applied to the
shelf aisles play a central role. Each
centimetre of shelf aisle corresponds
to a barcode which is recorded by the
reading devices installed at chassis
height during the run. If, during the
run, the reading device finds the
barcode of the desired storage rack,
the operator – guided by a graphic
display on the touch panel – goes
to the correct shelf level with their
joystick so that they can begin the
removal process from there.
The Hubtex EZK 35 (Series 2610) with
vacuum-suction device
Wooden floor
precision
It is a tricky business to order-pick high quality wood-based
flooring fast and efficiently without scratching the product.
This is how one Swiss company does it.
58
Logistics Business Magazine | February 2016
ORDER PICKING