The Combined Berner Group located in Kuenzelsau, Germany, Europe-wide one of the leading direct sales organizations of consumables and tools to the professional user in trade and indus-try, is extending its logistics system. The company is expanding the warehouse and picking capacities within the central warehouse of the German Distribution Company. Berner opted for the Dynamic Picking System (DPS) developed by Witron headquartered in Parkstein, Germany. DPS combines all warehouse and picking functionalities in one scalable systems solution. Through this 11 million Euros investment, Berner will be able to reduce the logistics costs sub-stantially and increase the throughput and productivity within the total system. The new logistics technology designed by Witron is within the 85 meters long new warehouse and will cover 2.500 square meters of surface currently realized. The operation is expected to be productive mid 2007.
Up until now, the picking operation in the existing semi-automatic warehouse has been done on a two-tier-basis. As of now, Berner has decided to go for a "pick & pack" solution from Witron. The DPS system monitors the changing movement rates of the articles while supplying them into static or dynamic tote channels. There are 2,200 tote channels in total. Picking takes place on two linked picking levels with a total of twenty picking stations that are provided with storage goods by six stacker cranes. Each aisle in the DPS tote warehouse will be equipped with two stacker cranes, which not only cover inbound and outbound storage functions, but also ensure the continuous replenishment of totes into the picking channels of the DPS. Storage capacity will also be extended: Before the expansion, the warehouse offered 21.500 pallet and 57.000 tote storage locations. Henceforth Berner will be able to utilize an additional 2.300 pallet storage locations. Furthermore the capacity of the tote warehouse will be almost double with an addi-tional 55.000 storage locations. By using DPS, the pick performance can be augmented to 35.000 order lines per day. This is close to double the dispatch rate and thus halves the order throughput time. As a result, the latest order time can be extended from the present 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm, something that Berner's more than 100.000 satisfied customers – and this is only counting Germany – will benefit from.
Furthermore, the project scope of Witron provides the integration of a manual pallet warehouse into the DPS picking process. This will allow the employees to pick from pallet locations into cartons at the DPS picking stations as well. Because of this, Berner assures itself the necessary flexibility to benefit from the advantages of the DPS system in case of great changes within the delivery program that currently lists 25.000 articles.
Portrait Berner
The Combined Berner Group is one of the leading European direct sellers, offering an all-round service in the small components business to professionals in the construction and automotive industries. Within the last fiscal year, the distribution company has increased its turnover by 3.5 percent to 687 million Euros.
More than 6,500 employees in 21 European countries – 4,200 of whom are in field sales – see it as their duty to ensure that customers benefit from their partnership with Berner.
Witron Logistik + Informatik GmbH was founded in 1971 with its headquarters in Parkstein (Eastern Bavaria/Germany) and today ranks among the leading design and realization compa-nies of automated logistics system solutions. Numerous national and international market lead-ers of industry and trade rely on the multidisciplinary and intersectoral competence Witron has gathered during 35 years of implementing more than 2,000 specific logistics projects in most different economical areas. As general contractor Witron covers the responsibility for budget, appointed dates and functionality during all project phases, starting with concept and design, all the way through installation, the complete realization phase of the logistics installation as well as the system ramp-up phase. By means of a Customer Support partnership, users can benefit from Witron's know-how even after project completion for the complete life-cycle of their system.
At the end of business year 2005 the Witron group of companies employed 720 people world-wide, about 590 of them in Germany. The annual turnover in 2005 amounted to 200 million Eu-ros. Further subsidiaries for business development and customer support are located in Arling-ton Heights/Illinois (USA), Buckinghamshire (Great Britain) and Venray (Netherlands).
contact:
Mr. Karl Hoegen,
UK Branch Manager,
phone +44 (0)1494 681 222,
email: khoegen@witron.co.uk