The plant produces switchgear and customer-specific electronic components for the global market. In one year, more than 1,270,000 material parts are to be stored for the production of applications.

The compact piece goods picking solution from Dematic not only improves warehouse space utilization at Siemens, but also automates picking and material flow for production. It includes an AutoStore system with more than 45,000 bins for the storage of small parts with adjacent Dematic conveyor technology. In addition to time and cost savings, the Dematic solution for Siemens offers higher capacity and storage density as well as a reduced error rate in the assembly of components.

"Until now, we have worked with a manual modular rack storage system at the site. With the new solution, the entire material flow is now automated to ensure a very good production supply at all times, which is flexibly integrated into the work processes at Siemens," says Carsten Sambo, Head of Inbound Logistics, Siemens WKC.

As a long-standing consulting partner of Siemens, KION Group sister company STILL presented Dematic. The intralogistics expert and forklift truck manufacturer also supplied a racking system for around 12,000 storage locations and 2,100 square meters of platform space for the warehouse as part of the overall logistics concept. Dematic worked together with Siemens WKC to develop the piece goods picking solution.

"Siemens has trusted the Kion Group for years because of their commitment to excellence in all projects," explains Rainer Buchmann, SVP, Dematic Central Europe. "This project demonstrates the great collaboration between Siemens, Dematic and Still - and the results prove that working together produces exceptional results - more orders processed, less time and fewer errors. A real win-win for everyone."

The AutoStore system has more than 45,000 bins. These are divided into different compartments so that several different products can be stored per bin. The orders are collected by 34 mobile robots that travel along the top of the system and access the bins containing the parts as soon as they are requested. They then automatically transport the items to one of the five picking stations, where the components are bundled for further processing in production. Previously, employees had to travel long distances to pick the individual items. A conveyor belt then brings the parts bundle to the production area.

To supply the AutoStore system with parts, the packages are unloaded directly from the delivery vehicles onto connected Dematic conveyor technology and transported via lifts to the workstations in the incoming goods area. The system's containers are filled there. Further conveyor belts then take the containers to the transfer cell, where they are loaded into the AutoStore system. The conveyor technology thus automates the entire material flow of the goods.

Siemens has also integrated the new ASIS (AutoStore Integration Service) storage system, a software solution developed and supported by Siemens Bad Neustadt, into its IT structure. It supplements SAP and controls the processes between AutoStore, conveyor technology and the employees.