In a first step, a total investment of 50 million Swiss francs was made in this project. In the area of intralogistics, the project managers relied on the experience and expertise of Stöcklin Logistik AG.

Over the course of its 75-year history, Kindlimann AG has established itself as a leading Swiss steel service provider and is also considered a major international player. The company, which is part of the Van Leeuwen Group, produces and distributes a full range of carbon and stainless steel tubes, profiles and accessories as well as bright and stainless steel bars. Customers also benefit from a 24-hour delivery service provided by the company's own fleet of vehicles. At the same time, Kindlimann provides additional services in the area of technical support and implements customized procurement projects on a global level. On the production side, almost 200 employees process more than 30,000 tons of steel every year. In addition, components for the automotive supply industry are manufactured in the order of around 30 million units in the same period.

Strategic investment in the future

The offer to deliver parts directly to production or to the assembly line is also impressive. Customers can choose between just-in-time (JIT) and Kanban concepts or order express deliveries if required. This has the decisive advantage of being able to reduce their own material stocks without jeopardizing security of supply. With this wide range of products and services, Kindlimann meets the requirements of an increasingly demanding clientele around the globe. In order to be able to act even more efficiently and effectively in the future, the decision was made to merge the existing Wil and Schwarzenbach sites in Tobel-Tägerschen, Canton Thurgau.

To this end, four industrial halls and an administration building were to be built on a total area of 44,000 square meters - the equivalent of around seven soccer pitches. The symbolic ground-breaking ceremony took place at the beginning of December 2018. At the end of February 2019, Stöcklin Logistik AG, based in Laufen, Switzerland, was commissioned to implement the intralogistics concept. The focus was on a 1-aisle automated high-bay warehouse (HBW) for accessories and another for automotive components. "In the course of rescheduling, we were able to combine both the accessories and automotive warehouses in one hall to save space," reports Tommy Dückmann, Project Manager at Stöcklin Logistik AG. "However, these two areas are operated independently of each other." The direction of travel was also clear at IT level. In line with Kindlimann's wishes, both warehouses were to be controlled by the Stöcklin WCS (Warehouse Control System). Outside of this, SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management System) takes over the processes and manages the stocks and orders. The Stöcklin WCS is in turn responsible for executing the transmitted transport orders and managing the storage locations.

Relocation phase without loss of performance

The move to the new site in Tobel-Tägerschen began around two months before the two automated warehouses went live in August 2020. This involved moving not only a material stock of 11,000 tons (pipes, profiles, pipe accessories and solid material), but also more than 60 machines. Despite this tour de force, Kindlimann has managed to maintain its delivery service as usual. Since commissioning, the intralogistics system has been in regular operation for six days at 16 hours each. The automotive warehouse is designed to hold 2028 pallets, while the accessories warehouse has a capacity of 1950 storage locations.

An automatic storage and retrieval machine (SRM) type MASTer 24 equipped with a telescopic fork operates in both sectors. Euro type 1 pallets with a special attachment are used in the automotive sector. These load carriers are primarily used for loose containers. The storage and retrieval machine installed there performs 60 storage and 60 retrieval operations per hour. Only regular Euro type 1 pallets are in circulation in the accessories warehouse. The cycle time of the device used here is 32 double cycles per hour as required.

Independent operation, same process

In the automotive sector, a carrier pallet is provided for each load carrier during storage. These are kept in stacks of up to twelve pallets in the warehouse, separated by a dispenser and dispensed or picked up. They are fed to the high-bay warehouse via a transfer carriage. Similarly, pallets for the accessories warehouse are stored and handled in another dispenser. In addition to the storage and retrieval machines and the "pallet dispensers", Stöcklin's scope of delivery also included the entire area-separated pallet conveyor technology in the pre-zone, including fire protection and high-speed doors.

The pallets and small parts containers are recorded in the SAP ERP/EWM system by handheld scanners at all loading and unloading points as well as at the picking workstation. The Stöcklin WCS is connected to the host via an interface. It manages the containers and storage locations, processes the storage and retrieval transport orders and virtually directs the material flow together with the underlying control technology, which monitors the donors and regulates the motors. In this context, data such as length, width and height as well as any profile errors and the weight of the containers are also recorded by the PLC and reported to the WCS. At the same time, the system is able to optimize transport orders by creating sequences. A transport order is completed in real time via acknowledgement to the ERP system. The WCS, a separately usable component of the Stöcklin Software Suite, also has an integrated visualization. This allows employees to keep an eye on the operating status of the storage and retrieval machines and pallet conveyor lines at all times.

With the new 20.5-metre-high building in Tobel-Tägerschen, Kindlimann has also been able to increase its storage capacity to 15,000 tons. "High availability combined with further improved delivery quality are important prerequisites for being able to survive in volatile markets in the future and gain market share," adds Roger Gähler, Co-Managing Director of Kindlimann. "We have now laid this foundation in the canton of Thurgau." Of course, there were also minor problems due to the coronavirus pandemic. "Some fitters from abroad were unable to travel," says Stöcklin project manager Tommy Dückmann. "But we were able to fill this gap with our own people without losing any time." Flexibility was also required in view of the delayed delivery of the purchased high-speed doors. But in the end, everything worked as planned.