The sales company for kindergarten materials was founded in 2002 as a one-man business. Back then, company founder Manfred Kurth drove around the country with a van full of toys. Since then, the company has grown quickly and steadily. Today, with over 50 employees, it sells around 12,500 different items from well-known German and European manufacturers. These include play, craft and consumable materials, games of skill and movement, furniture and furnishings.

And the expansion continues, "because our market is growing continuously in view of the new daycare centers and crèches that are being created," says Dominik Kurth, son of the company founder and part of the management team. "Especially as more and more private individuals are also ordering from us." In order to remain true to its motto - fast, convenient and inexpensive - in the face of increasing demand, Jetzt kommt Kurth has now combined its logistics space, which was previously spread across three warehouses, and its administration at a new company location.

In the high-bay racking area, Kurth Now comes ... marks the storage locations with colored multi-level labels. © Onk

State-of-the-art warehouse
"The new warehouse is not only around three and a half times larger than the previous three, it is also state of the art," emphasizes Kurth. Modern packing lines and conveyor technology, new hardware and software such as back-of-hand scanners, multi-order picking and a first-in-first-out warehouse strategy increase efficiency through shorter distances and improved traceability. Great importance was attached to ergonomics during the planning and construction of the new company site. This is also reflected in the height-adjustable desks and packing stations.

All-round expertise in labeling
A clear warehouse structure and systematic labeling of storage locations and load carriers also play a key role in shortening distances. Here Jetzt kommt Kurth ... has relied on the expertise of Onk. The Cologne-based specialist offers consulting, planning, sampling, production and assembly from a single source. "An Onk employee first looked at the conditions on site and we were able to present our wishes and goals," says Kurth. "Together, we then developed the final solution for labeling our containers and the storage locations in our racking system. We were able to test in advance how the labels would harmonize with our system using the samples provided. Onk then installed the labels we had produced."

Manage multiple storage locations with one label
To provide a quick overview in the warehouses, Onk first numbered the individual rows of shelves with aisle signs so that they were visible from afar. In a second step, each of the almost 9,000 rack locations was marked with a barcode label. In the high-bay area, Jetzt kommt Kurth ... opted for colored multi-level labels. They are affixed to the lowest crossbeam and depict all the storage locations above.