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of October 2013. It has been operating
live since that mid-November. For
goods-in, Attends now uses the new
installation to process up to 250 pallets
from production and external suppliers;
it is designed for a throughput of up to
1,300 pallets per day for goods-out. “We
can use the same system to manage
both euro pallets and industrial pallets,”
enthuses Sjökvist.
Twenty-five loaded trucks currently
leave the factory compound in Aneby
every day – and this will soon increase
to as many as 45 per day – while 220
different articles, totalling 45 million
individual items, held in 520,200 units
on around 14,800 pallets, are stored.
Two vertical lifts take the single-article
pallets of finished products compiled
in production by palletising robots,
and the picked mixed pallets, to a
platform construction. This conveying
section stores the pallets in the HBW.
Whole pallets are retrieved in the
opposite direction and transported to
a manual picking warehouse zone as
replenishment.
The pallets from production designated
for storage in the HBW and the picked
mixed pallets are collected at the end
of the conveying section by two lifting
units and lowered to the storage and
retrieval level of the HBW. A conveying
system loop is installed here. It supplies
the five handover stations at the
storage and retrieval machines (SRM)
with the pallets from production and
picking, as well as with the pallets of
external suppliers that are fed into the
automation processes by a separate
conveying system table. The loop also
conveys the order pallets retrieved
from the HBW to the pre-zone of the
goods-out area – or to the picking area
as replenishment pallets.
The installed type Exyz SRMs collect
the pallets for storage at the five
handover stations in the HBW.
The Exyz with their telescopic load
handling devices that are installed
by Attends as single-boom cranes,
ensure single to triple depth storage
and retrieval, depending on the type
of pallet. “Environmental awareness
and sustainable concepts determine
the company philosophy at Attends,”
explains Sjökvist. “We were won over
by the modern, energy-efficient storage
and retrieval machines.”
This is because the design features of
Exyz SRMs are geared to space-saving
and efficiency. The “E” stands for energy
efficiency and the efficient performance
in the warehouse that the devices
provide in all three operational axes, X, Y
and Z. “This enables Attends to achieve
energy savings of up to 25% in pallet
trucks alone, compared to conventional
devices, as well as significantly reducing
operating costs,” says Sales Manager
Bohlin. With a travel speed of 200 m/
min and a lifting speed of 60 m/min, the
devices achieve an overall handling
performance of up to 145 double cycles
per hour, precisely tailored to the
operator’s requirements. “Overall, the
processes are extremely cost-effective
and energy-efficient,” says Sjökvist.
The Exyz SRMs are WLAN-based and
totally controlled and coordinated by
the WAMAS logistics software. With
so many functions and services at
its disposal, the IT system at Attends
ensures optimum stock management
and administration, goods-in and
goods-out process recording, storage
location allocation according to pallet
size and path-optimised material flow.
With its visualisation functions, it also
provides substantial transparency for
stock, processes and system utilisation.
Orders are completed in Aneby, mostly
with full pallets. “At the moment, we
hardly ever pick mixed pallets,” says
Attends Technology Manager Sjökvist.
“But this is a growing order segment,
nevertheless. With the new material
flows and the picking warehouse zone
in the centre, we are better equipped
for it.”
WAMAS initiates the requisite retrievals
of the full and mixed pallets stored in
the HBW on time for dispatch staging,
and ensures that the pallets are brought
to the gravity roller conveyors in the
goods-out area in keeping with the
order. Three such conveying sections
are installed at each of the 14 goods-out
gates. Each has a buffer for 12 pallets
– a total of 36 pallets for each truck.
The pallets retrieved from the HBW
are handed over from the storage and
retrieval loop to a congestion track.
This supplies two transfer carriages
which in turn use the 42 gravity roller
conveyors. In the goods-out area,
WAMAS ensures a sequential staging
of pallets in keeping with the order by
putting the retrieval orders in sequence
and allocating them to the respective
transfer carriages.
ANEBY STORAGE
BY NUMBERS
n
45 million individual items
n
19,100 storage locations
n
220 different articles
n
520,200 units
n
14,800 pallets
n
14 goods-out gates
n
1,300 pallets per day
n
45 daily truck departures
52
Logistics Business Magazine | February 2016
WAREHOUSE TECHNOLOGY AND SYSTEMS