Swisslog implements turnkey facility for leading European retailer

In partnership with Swisslog, leading European retailer dmdrogerie markt has successfully commissioned its new logistics centre in Weilerswist, Germany. Swisslog's services in connection with the new facility included planning and constructing the turnkey logistics centre, installing automation and supplying material flow software. Swisslog was responsible for building the different logistics areas, integrating all storage and material handling solutions and also implementing the material flow control systems within the distribution centre.

DM- selected Swisslog to build the new facility having already worked with them for their distribution centre in nearby Waghäusel back in 2003 and 2004. "We were able to prove yet again that Swisslog is the ideal partner when it comes to the planning and implementation of complex logistics projects" said Severin Gutzwiller, Project Manager at Swisslog.

State-of-the-art Technology Together with the existing distribution centre in Waghäusel, the new centre supplies all dm- stores with products on mixed pallets at the rate of approximately 3,000 pallets per day. The combined distribution centre is divided into a picking warehouse for carton goods, a picking warehouse for small goods, storage preparation and a high-bay warehouse.

The picking warehouse for carton goods has approximately 20,000 pallet locations and is equipped with 13 automated pallet handling cranes. As in the case of the retailer's distribution centre in Waghäusel, the Swisslog CaddyPick™ solution is also used here; a semi-automated case order-picking system typically applied in the retail industry.

52 miniload cranes operate within the picking warehouse for small goods. This warehouse has 140,000 bin locations, including an allocation dedicated to buffering finished orders ready to be sent to dm- stores. It handles products from the inbound goods area, supplies goods to the picking zone and sequences and transports cartons to the outbound goods area.

A 30m tall high-bay warehouse with seven automated pallet handling cranes and 14,000 pallet locations holds stock and supplies products to the small goods picking zone.

In the storage preparation area, goods are prepared for the picking process. Boxes are removed from pallets automatically, cut open and transferred to a picking zone.

This transportation of products to a specific picking area minimises the required walking distances of Pickers and thus enhances productivity; on peak days at dm- more than one million order lines are picked at 222 picking stations.

An investment for the future DM-'s new logistics centre has excellent environmental and sustainability credentials. Buildings are heated with CO2-efficient wood chips, whilst energy-efficient motors in material handling, solar panels on the roof, optimised utilisation of vehicles and the bundling of transports guarantee savings of more than 5,000 tons of CO2 a year.