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EDEKA Group trusts in WITRON’s OPM again
EDEKA Group trusts in WITRON’s OPM again
It is truly a lighthouse project! The new logistics center of EDEKA Handelsgesellschaft Nordbayern-Sachsen-Thüringen mbH located in Marktredwitz (Germany), is currently under construction and will start operations in mid-2024 - both technologically and economically. It will supply some 900 stores in parts of Franconia, the Upper Palatinate, Saxony, and Thuringia with almost 28,000 different items from the dry goods range, fruits, vegetables, gourmet foods, frozen products, and flowers. The facility with a size of approx. 100,000 square meters is designed for a peak picking capacity of 583,000 pick units per day. Spread across all logistics areas, 66,000 pallet storage locations, 730,000 tote, and tray storage locations, as well as 139 stacker cranes are connected by an efficient material flow - intelligently controlled by advanced logistics and IT systems.
Customer: EDEKA
As in the EDEKA distribution centers in Oberhausen, Landsberg, Zarrentin, and Berbersdorf, as well as in the NETTO distribution centers in Erharting and Henstedt, WITRON Logistik + Informatik GmbH from Parkstein is responsible for the complete design, implementation, and commissioning as a logistics lifetime partner. This also includes the design and implementation of all IT, control, and mechanical components. Furthermore, a WITRON OnSite team takes care of service, maintenance, and a constantly high system availability of this distribution center. A future expansion of the Marktredwitz site is already part of the current logistics design.
Location
Marktredwitz (Germany)
Industry sector
Retail / Distribution
Products
28,000 different items: Dry goods, fresh products, gourmet foods, fruits, vegetables, frozen products, flowers, and bananas.
Solutions
OPM, CPS, AIO, ATS, pick-by-voice, automatic shipping buffer
Volume
583,000 picked cases daily
Special features of the project
The logistical centerpiece of the fruit and vegetable area is WITRON’s intelligent and modular Automated Tote System (ATS) with nine stacker cranes and 42,500 tote storage locations. Plastic totes of the size 600 x 400 and 400 x 300 mm are used as well. ATS allows goods already filled in totes (towers) by the supplier to be fully automatically collected, destacked, buffered, picked, stacked on a dispatch unit according to customer or in a store-friendly manner, and made available for delivery. The dry goods assortment is the product range with the highest throughput, handling 65% of all picked units. Here too, fully or semi-automated systems handle the processing of cases, single-item picking, and the store-friendly consolidation of display pallets with maximum efficiency. The implementation includes an OPM system with 18 COM machines, an All-in-One Order Fulfillment System (AIO) with 20 ergonomic piece picking workstations, a Car Picking System (CPS) for the semi-automated picking of heavy or bulky items, as well as a Display Pallet Picking System (DPP), which consolidates customer orders consisting of different half and quarter pallets in a separate high bay warehouse in line with customer requirements. The storage and picking of flowers and frozen goods at the distribution center in Marktredwitz is supported by a pick-by-voice system and controlled by a WITRON WMS. In this process, frozen goods are picked directly into insulated containers at -18 degrees Celsius or -22 degrees Celsius.
Challenge
“WITRON’s task was to develop a solution with holistic consistency both technologically and economically”, says the EDEKA Director Rainer Kämpgen. “End-to-end within the internal supply chain - from receiving to shipping. End-to-end within the external supply chain - from the supplier to the distribution center, transportation, and to the stores. End-to-end in terms of temperature zones and product groups: Dry, fresh, gourmet food, fruits, vegetables, frozen products. End-to-end in terms of cases and load carriers to be picked: Piece picking, case picking, totes, half pallets, full pallets, roll containers, and insulated containers. WITRON has convincingly succeeded in meeting these requirements”, says the responsible EDEKA Director.
Customer opinion
“'True to the credo ‘technology from people for people’, EDEKA and WITRON always aim as focusing on the five key issues when using the latest logistics technology - service level for the stores, cost-efficiency, people, sustainability, and flexibility”, says Logistics Director Rainer Kämpgen. “When it comes to service level, EDEKA merchants and all consumers benefit first and foremost in terms of premium customer service made possible by holistic cost-efficient processes within the internal and external logistics supply chain. When it comes to people, it is the employees in the stores who benefit from the highly efficient goods handling based on store-friendly picked load carriers - and, of course, all staff members in the EDEKA logistics centers who benefit from ergonomic and leading-edge workstations”, explains Rainer Kämpgen. “Sustainability is addressed in many ways - for example through significant CO2 savings due to densely packed load carriers, optimal truck utilization, and fewer trucks on the roads. Furthermore, through footprint savings in construction, as well as significant reduction of excess good, breakage, and waste. In addition, flexibility and expandability also ensure future viability. With that, permanently changing market requirements can be met quickly and flexibly”.