TGL offers transport, logistics and value-added services, including barcode-supported picking, bundling and cost-optimized shipping. The third hall expands the Ochtrup logistics center to a total of more than 25,000 square meters of warehouse and logistics space. One of the largest customers at the site is the agricultural machinery manufacturer Kemper, a John Deere subsidiary, for whom TGL organizes the worldwide spare parts logistics. Depending on the season of its customers, TGL moves between 10,000 and 12,000 outgoing goods items with up to 1.4 million individual parts every month.

"For our logistics performance, storage location identification is an important part of achieving a zero-error mentality," emphasizes Michael Schweisfurth, Head of Logistics at TGL, "because it makes all processes consistently transparent and traceable." The annual inventory sampling of items stored for Kemper, for example, recently showed a difference of just 0.08% - with more than 10,000 different spare parts. In addition, 98.8 percent of the orders received by Kemper are dispatched by TGL on the same day.

Quick overview of 77 rows of shelves
The expansion had become necessary in order to meet the demand for space from its rapidly expanding existing customers. When the third hall is fully occupied, 77 rows of racks, each eleven and a half meters high, offer space for 15,000 pallets. As a first step, TGL has racked half of the area with 7,500 storage spaces and is using the remaining space as block storage for the time being. Currently, the main focus of storage there is the hardware of an internet power seller. Based on the warehouse plan structure specified by TGL, Onk produced and installed shelf line signs and almost 12,000 labels.

Onk has affixed self-adhesive foil labels with eleven-digit space numbers, consisting of the hall number, shelf number, row, level and compartment, to all shelves. © The Green Line

Shelf row or aisle signs, which are clearly visible on the front of the shelves, ensure basic organization in the warehouse. The 30-centimetre large numbers printed on non-reflective film are easy to read from a distance and provide a quick overview. Onk has attached self-adhesive foil labels with eleven-digit storage space numbers, consisting of the hall number, shelf number, row, level and compartment, to all shelves. In addition, a downward-pointing arrow on each label points to level 00 and an upward-pointing arrow to all other levels.

TGL wants reach truck drivers to be able to scan goods without having to dismount. For this reason, Onkab has affixed a retroreflective barcode label four meters above the rack in addition to the storage location label. The light signal amplifies the scanner's light signal and can therefore be read from a distance of up to twelve meters. © The Green Line

Scanning shelves up to ten meters high
The particular challenge lay in marking the shelves above a height of four meters. "The drivers of our reach trucks should be able to scan the storage locations up to a height of ten meters from the forklift without having to get down," says Schweisfurth. "The scanning angle in the 2.95 meter wide aisle was the decisive criterion." Onk solved this with retroreflective barcode labels, which were affixed around the traverse from a height of four meters in addition to the storage location label. These labels reflect incident light back towards the radiation source, largely independent of the orientation of the reflector, and amplify the scanner's light signal. This means that barcode labels can be scanned quickly and reliably even in difficult areas and from distances of up to twelve meters.

Half of the new hall is already occupied by items from existing customers. "With the remaining free capacity, we are also targeting new customers who require modern storage space combined with high-quality logistics services," says Schweisfurth. The new storage section is designed for the future for the storage of water-polluting substances (WGK 1-3) and has various safety features such as fire and burglar alarms, a sprinkler system and video surveillance for the entire indoor and outdoor area. The third hall is designed with ten dock levellers and two ground-level gates, one of which is extra wide. as