SMALL PARTS LOGISTICS ON A LARGE SCALE
Starlim//Sterner is an Austrian manufacturing company which has been specialised in liquid silicone components since its foundation in 1974. The fully automatic injection moulding procedure has always been the core competency of the company, making a name for itself in international business. The silicone products are as manifold as the number of sectors for which they are manufactured. At their location in Marchtrenk, Upper Austria, the company produces components for the automotive, medical engineering and sanitary industry sectors as well as for toys.
The extremely positive business development called for an optimisation of the logistics system linked to the production facilities. Until the award of contract in 2005 the production area had been operated in a totally manual way. The decision to install a new, automated warehouse at the Austrian location was based on two reasons. On the one hand they wanted to use the valuable space as best as possible. On the other hand they wanted to assure faster response times to more and more reduced delivery time frames for supplies all over the world.
Starlim//Sterner chose TGW Systems Integration as competent partner for project engineering and implementation for mechatronical and IT components.
REQUIREMENTS & PREREQUISITES
Apart from the general objective mentioned above Starlim//Sterner specified the following requirements for the new logistics solution:
- maximum storage density
- high flexibility and expandability of the logistics system
- tidiness and cleanliness
- handling of seven different carton types
- a minimum of 2,600 load carrier movements in double cycle in the carton warehouse and 200 movements in the pallet warehouse
- high system availability in order to guarantee delivery reliability
- implementation of a warehouse management system with HOST interface
- professional support during operation
SOLUTION
Basically the new logistics centre at Starlim//Sterner consists of a 3-aisle automatic mini-load warehouse for double-deep staging of cartons and a 1-aisle, double-deep pallet warehouse for Euro pallets and grid boxes. The mini-load system has a capacity of 36,000 storing locations with regard to cartons 600 x 400 mm, the pallet warehouse accommodates about 1,500 storing positions. The production, packaging and dispatch areas are linked to the warehouses via a conveyor system. All processes are controlled by the CI_LOG supply chain software.
The produced parts are filled into single-batch production totes at the injection moulding machines. The totes are identified by barcode labels used to assign and transport them to one of the eight manual packaging stations. The components are packed into cartons of different sizes according to consumption. Once a production tote has been completely processed, the next totes are waiting on the buffer lines provided for each workplace. The employees at the workplaces push the finished cartons onto the storage lines towards the automatic carton warehouse. The empty production totes are handed over to the conveyor line at the top of the three lines arranged one on top of the other and transported back into the production area for cleaning.
All repacked parts are transported to the conveyor loop in the carton warehouse via a lift. Three Mustang stacker cranes take them over and store them in the mini-load system which serves for buffering the individual cartons until they are consolidated on pallets.
Order Palletising And Dispatch
The automatic pallet high-bay warehouse is used to buffer pallets coming from the production. In case of larger order quantities single-batch pallets are built already in the packaging area. Besides, the pallet warehouse accommodates finished order pallets which are ready for dispatch but shall be shipped later in order to avoid congestions on the loading platforms. Each pallet has to be checked prior to storage with regard to load carrier and load. TGW Magnus stacker cranes with double-deep telescope take care of storage and retrieval.
For dispatch, order pallets have to be consolidated from the carton warehouse. After the cartons have been retrieved a palletising robot stacks them onto pallets which are then secured for transport by an automatic wrapping machine. Before the corresponding truck arrives at goods issue, all pallets which have been buffered for a dispatch order are retrieved from the high-bay warehouse or provided directly from the palletising station. The truck driver can now withdraw his load from the predefined platform. Additionally there is the possibility to dispatch cartons via a parcel service.
Technical Highlights
The carton storage solution at Starlim//Sterner meets the highest demands on performance and compactness. Three TGW Mustang automatic storage and retrieval machines which are equipped with the Twister V load handling device provide for the required flexibility, handling the seven different carton sizes by means of the telescopic arms which can be moved along two axes. The special control software enables a flexible alignment of several carton sizes in the rack shelves. This software identifies the carton dimensions and filling level of the shelves and allocates the carton to be stored to a storing location, following the best utilisation of space. The double-deep storage in the pallet high-bay warehouse caters for the provision of pallets with a weight of up to 1,000 kg according to the available capacities.
The entire material flow, from production to dispatch, includes high-performance conveyor systems by TGW. Special attention was given to low-noise transportation and ergonomic design.
The design of the tote conveyor system focused on a space-saving solution. The entire conveyor system runs overhead in order to keep the driveways clear. Besides a tote lift sees to it that the totes coming from the production are transported into the corresponding packaging areas. Another lift takes the finished cartons to the conveyor line which leads into the mini-load system and, after that, to the palletising robots.
In principle the design of the logistics system enables Starlim/Sterner to cover several process levels, contributing to an optimum utilisation of the building.
ADVANTAGES FOR STARLIM//STERNER
- High flexibility
> fast, customer-specific order palletising directly from the carton warehouse
> preparation of order pallets prior to delivery
> simple, flexible expandability of the storage modules - High delivery reliability and quality
> large reserve capacity to cover peak performances and growth
> reliable stocks
> tidiness and cleanliness - High productivity combined with optimised logistics costs
> fully automatic transport, short picking routes for picking personnel
> high storage density
> modern and well-proven CI_LOG supply chain software with online connection to Starlim//Sterner's ERP system
