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ŠKODAs logistics for spare parts business
ŠKODAs logistics for spare parts business
The Czech car manufacturer ŠKODA supplies business partners in 106 countries worldwide from its European Spare Parts Center in Mladá Boleslav. More than 26,000 orders are processed there every day. The product range includes 185,000 different items. The automated small parts warehouse (AS/RS) plays a central role in this network.
Customer: ŠKODA
For a successful car manufacturer, selling new cars is no longer the only thing that matters. The spare parts and after-sales business has become increasingly important. A high degree of professionalism with regards to customer support, quality, repairs, or service not only ensures a high level of customer loyalty in times of increasingly intense competition. The resulting sales have continued to rise over the course of the past few years. Today, ŠKODA generates more than 600 million euros in sales per year from the sale of original parts and original equipment (OP/OE).
Location
Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic
Industry sector
Automotive Industry
Products
185,000 different items
Solutions
OPS and ITM
Volume
140,000 storage locations
Special features of the project
For the expansion carried out in Mladà Boleslav, WITRON developed patented pick workstations together with ŠKODA and the TUEV Rheinland (Technical Inspection Authorities), which fully meet the high group’s requirements in terms of workplace ergonomics. "These requirements include the provision of goods according to the goods-to-person principle, 45-degree tilted totes, the possibility to adjust the height of the workstation by means of self-developed floor slabs, and significant noise reduction at the workstation and throughout the plant. In addition, the completely automated supply and removal process means that the totes no longer have to be lifted or carried. In order to achieve maximum consolidation in the warehouse, another technical WITRON innovation is used at ŠKODA. The totes of different sizes and heights used in the new AS/RS are transported on trays. The bottom of the tray carrier plate is designed to be flexible enough to transport between one and four totes at a time. If the OPS system notices that there are a certain number of empty totes in the AS/RS on trays with two or four totes, for example, these are automatically transported to a consolidation station. This is where full and empty totes are separated mechanically. Full totes are merged onto trays of two or four and returned to the AS/RS in a mechanized manner. Empty trays are also bundled automatically onto trays of two or four and transported to the receiving area, where they can be immediately refilled. Consolidation at the merging point is not only mechanized, but is immediately updated in the IT warehouse management system. Manual support is no longer necessary for this process.
Challenge
Due to the increasing variety of products, the existing facility has now been expanded to meet the high expectations regarding the flexibility of the logistics processes and to permanently improve all operations. The existing forklift guiding system was also updated to the latest state-of-the-art with a modern ITM application. Partner for the design and realization of both projects is the general contractor, WITRON Logistik + Informatik GmbH, from Parkstein (Germany). The high degree of flexibility in logistics is also very important, because the spare parts center in Mladá Boleslav operates in three shifts and has two very different basic logistics processes: On the one hand, all spare parts for the VW, Audi, and Seat Group brands are shipped from here to all 460 service partners and authorized repair shops in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the Baltic States. The following applies: Orders received by 6 p.m. will be delivered the following morning. On the other hand, the facility in Mladá Boleslav supplies ŠKODA wholesalers in 106 countries across the globe with the entire ŠKODA spare parts range. In terms of figures this means that retailers receive an average of 65 percent of all picked parts, while wholesalers receive some 65 percent of the picked volume.
Customer opinion
WITRON has been an important supplier of automated and conventional warehouse technology for ŠKODA AUTO a.s. and the OP/OE sector for many years. Throughout this time, our experiences in both areas have been consistently positive.