The Halle site is KSB's lead plant for pumps and submersible motors in the water and wastewater technology sector - a real growth market. © KSB, viastore

Another factor was the streamlining of production, as Fuchs explains: "We used to temporarily store material for two days in the buffer areas in production." But with the increase in orders, this space was needed for production. Today, Oliver Fuchs' team has to have the material ready for production within four hours or less. "Due to the massive utilization of the warehouse, we had an additional logistical effort of 30 to 40 percent," estimates Norbert Fisch, KSB's process optimizer, who ensures punctual delivery at the Halle site. "We want to and must continue to grow in the future," explains Fisch. "So the question was how we could improve our position as quickly as possible."

The decision was made to expand and modernize

The first idea was to upgrade the warehouse management system. Until then, the warehouse and material flow had been managed by the more than 20-year-old viadat 5.4 Warehouse Management System (WMS) - the software from Stuttgart-based intralogistics experts viastore, who had also built the high-bay warehouse. This WMS does not yet include many functions that are a matter of course in the current 9.1 generation. "With the upgrade, we could have made better use of the available space," explains Fisch. However, it soon became clear that a new WMS alone would not be enough. This is because the processes in the conveyor technology, which transports the material from the high-bay warehouse to the picking stations, also proved to be a bottleneck given the increased order situation.

Every year, around 12,000 pumps and 16,000 submersible motors are produced here to order and in a wide range of variants. The raw and semi-finished goods are temporarily stored in pallet boxes. © KSB, viastore

KSB therefore decided to expand the three-aisle high-bay warehouse by two additional aisles with a total of 4,600 storage locations, optimize the conveyor technology, renew the control systems and switch to Profinet as the bus system as part of a plant restructuring. "It was important for us to carry out the entire conversion without disrupting production," emphasizes Fisch. The contract was awarded to viastore - and not just because the company had already built the original system and regularly modernized it, as Norbert Fisch explains: "We chose viastore because, in addition to its system expertise, the company also provides the control system and state-of-the-art software for storage and material flow. In addition, viastore supported us from planning, simulation and process optimization through to implementation and provided us with an experienced project manager who gave us security at all times. This allowed us to concentrate on our core tasks."

The goal: 25 percent performance increase

KSB defined an increase in performance of 25 percent as the goal of the expansion and modernization. In collaboration with the KSB team, viastore developed various scenarios and tested them for their practicality and profitability using extensive simulations. "In the end, we opted for the concept with the best results," explains Norbert Fisch.

To cope with the growing order situation, KSB extended the high-bay warehouse by two additional aisles with a total of 4,600 storage locations and replaced the more than 20-year-old Viadat 5.4 Warehouse Management System (WMS) with the latest generation Viadat 9. © KSB, viastore

Martin Ziemann, project manager at viastore SYSTEMS, then set about the detailed planning - always under the condition that ongoing production was not interrupted. "First of all, he drew up a detailed schedule with all the necessary work steps. All trades, including fire protection and façade construction, were scheduled to the minute in some cases," recalls Norbert Fisch - and is still amazed: "This schedule with a total of 189 process steps only had to be adjusted once during the course of the project - and only because of problems with the building ground." Marcel Schwarze adds: "Every single step of the conversion was defined in advance and everyone involved knew exactly which step had to be implemented and when."

Step by step to retrofit

"This is the only way we can avoid production downtime," explains Swen Mantel, who is responsible for the retrofit business at viastore. "You have to plan such measures in stages - especially to minimize the risk of interruptions to ongoing operations." In order to maintain all processes, viastore repeatedly implemented temporary interim solutions. "We modernized the three picking stations one after the other. First, the conveyor technology was converted, then new drives were installed before the wiring was carried out. In the meantime, we converted the third picking station into an incoming goods station," explains Norbert Fisch.

Following the expansion and modernization, the picking stations have sufficient buffer space and can be supplied with material independently of each other thanks to new branch lines. © KSB, viastore

Thanks to new branch lines, the picking points can now be supplied with material independently of each other. Each station also has a sufficient buffer. "Our aim was to ensure that employees always have enough material available and don't have to wait for it, as was the case recently. This is the only way to achieve a high pick rate," explains Marcel Schwarze. "The renewal of the conveyor technology and the restructuring of the routes has already resulted in a significant increase in the system's performance," explains Norbert Fisch. "Thanks to these measures, we could increase the warehouse's performance by a further 40 percent before we reach the mechanical capacity limits."

New Viadat provides additional performance boost

The final step in the expansion was the upgrade of the warehouse management system to the new Viadat 9 version. "In order to be able to use the software optimally, we first had to revise all processes," summarizes Christan Fehlau, who was responsible for the project as Sales Manager at viastore. Viadat is intuitive to use and already offers more than 2,500 functions as standard.

Extremely satisfied with the project, which was completed ahead of the originally agreed deadline: Frank Aschenbach, Plant Manager KSB at the Halle site, Norbert Fisch, Process Optimizer KSB, Marcel Schwarze, Project Manager KSB, Oliver Fuchs, Warehouse Manager KSB at the Halle site, Swen Mantel, Head of Retrofit at Viastore and Christian Fehlau, Sales Manager Retrofit at Viastore (from left). © KSB, viastore

"The ABC categorization of the warehouse items was particularly important to us in order to optimize the travel paths of the storage and retrieval machines," emphasizes warehouse manager Oliver Fuchs. "This enables faster access, increases the number of picks and thus generates a higher picking performance." The current version of the warehouse management system also offers significantly better evaluation options. "With the 20-year-old version, we had to create our evaluations in a time-consuming process using Excel. With Viadat 9, we get the figures we need on an individual dashboard with just one click," explains Fuchs. "This allows us to keep an eye on all developments and influence them proactively. Not only does this save time, but the plant is also optimally utilized and production can be more easily linked to logistics," points out Norbert Fisch.

Schedule exceeded

The new warehouse was commissioned a week before the actual deadline. Norbert Fisch is still impressed: "The fact that the coordination worked so well despite the many people involved in the project is simply gigantic and demonstrates why viastore is one of the leading companies in the industry." However, viastore not only kept to the schedule, but also achieved the targeted 25 percent increase in performance. Plant manager Frank Aschenbach also draws a positive conclusion: "Although we operated our plant at maximum capacity during the modernization and conversion phase, the project was completed without any loss of production. That is an outstanding achievement." Dr. Matthias Schweizer