In future, more than 45,000 containers in the compact small parts warehouse will be used to store various installation and electronic components that Siemens Digital Industries Motion Control uses at the production site for control cabinets for control systems. The system replaces the shelf storage system that is currently still operated manually. Autostore not only optimizes the use of storage space at the Siemens plant for combination technology in Chemnitz, but also automates the material flow. In addition to time and cost savings, the automated system, which is available 24/7, will increase the capacity for production logistics and further reduce the error rate when assembling components. The Autostore system is due to go into operation at the end of this year.

"Siemens' top priority was to compress the storage space. With our compact Autostore system, we provide an efficient, accurate and reliable solution for this," says Jessica Heinz, Head of Marketing and Business Development at Dematic. At Siemens, the modular piece goods picking system will be installed on an area of around 780 square meters. "The system achieves maximum storage density with minimum space requirements and therefore ensures optimum use of space," says Heinz. Thanks to the container tower-like structure, the system takes up less space than the previous shelf storage system. In future, Siemens will use the space thus gained to store larger goods.

In total, the compact small parts warehouse comprises more than 45,000 bins. These are divided into different compartments so that several different products can be stored per bin. At the top of the system, 34 robots access the inventory as soon as it is requested. They then transport it to one of the five picking stations, where the components are bundled for further processing in production. "Autostore ensures fewer picking errors and faster processes," says Heinz.

Autostore will also be connected directly to the conveyor technology also supplied by Dematic and the material flow at Siemens will be further automated. To this end, the system is connected to the incoming goods department via conveyor belts. Delivered packages can thus be unloaded directly from the truck onto Dematic conveyor belts and transported via lifts to the workstations in the incoming goods area. The containers of the AutoStore system are filled there.

The containers are then automatically transported to their storage location in the small parts warehouse via additional conveyor belts, which are connected to the system via transfer cells. "The entire material flow is therefore automatic, so that an optimum production supply is always guaranteed, which can be flexibly integrated into our customer's work processes," says Heinz.

Siemens is responsible for integrating the new storage system into the IT landscape. The company is relying on its in-house software solution ASIS (Autostore Integration Service). It serves as a link between Autostore, SAP, conveyor technology and the employees. as