Huckschlag puts fully automated small parts warehouse into operation
The Fröndenberg/Ruhr-based freight forwarder Huckschlag GmbH has made an investment of millions and is introducing a fully automated small parts warehouse from the manufacturer AutoStore. The company is thus setting completely new standards and possibilities in logistics services. Over 10,000 containers stacked closely on top of each other, so-called bins, hold small parts and are moved fully automatically in this modern storage system using AI techniques by high-speed robots and made available for order picking. The system is thus ideally suited for an efficient flow of the goods-to-person principle; searching in shelves with long paths and the risk of mix-ups is a thing of the past.
More efficiency and reliability for customers
“Our picking performance is unique. We have a system solution available for our customers that is ideal, for example, in spare parts management, for order picking with a wide range of products or for direct production supply, e.g. for assembly activities. The whole thing is also integrated into our forwarding division with the entire transport portfolio. We have our own fleet of more than 60 trucks and are connected in 3 high-performance networks with more than 600 partners throughout Europe. In addition, we are directly connected to 3 of the largest parcel service providers and are thus B2B and B2C capable,” reports Managing Director Thomas Huckschlag.
State-of-the-art processes
“The flexible IT based on SAP ERP logistics processes ensures that we are able to respond to individual processes in a customer-specific way.” Uwe Krumscheid (IT consultant) particularly emphasises: “It is a matter of course for us to speak the IT language of our customers, i.e. to always take into account the connection to customer systems. We are particularly happy about the fact that we can address AutoStore directly and without interfaces with our own software solution and freely defined business processes. Christoph Alefs (project manager at Huckschlag) explains: “We are proud of the very short realisation time of only 7 months from the idea to going live. This was only possible with the short decision-making processes of a medium-sized company and a committed team. The implementation took place during ongoing operations and we were able to foresee that this would give us space. Thus, maximum space utilisation of the already existing storage area could be achieved by eliminating aisles between the shelves.”
Sustainable and future-oriented
The manufacturer AutoStore states an availability of 99.7 % with an average operating time between two failures of over 3,000 hours. “It is always important to us: our customers can rely on us – also in this technical point,” says Thomas Huckschlag. The young entrepreneur is also particularly proud of the constant investments in more sustainability and the paths taken towards green logistics. For many years now, Huckschlag has been operating one of the largest photovoltaic systems in the region, producing green electricity. Thomas Huckschlag says: “We constantly invest in sustainable solutions, rely on a particularly environmentally friendly vehicle fleet with only EURO6 vehicles, e-cars and, from autumn, several fully electric trucks. Ultimately, however, we also pay attention to seemingly small things: the new storage system also offers advantages here. No energy is wasted: ten robots only consume the same amount of electricity as a hoover and this storage area also no longer needs light to operate.”
Huckschlag designed the Autostore system for easy system expansion from the start. The capacity can be expanded at any time without interrupting operations or having to accept downtime.
Spedition Huckschlag GmbH, Landstr. 2, 58730 Fröndenberg, Phone: 02373 / 9782-0
Contact person: Thomas Huckschlag
www.huckschlag-transporte.de