Remmert SUCCESS

The company‘s success stories

Reduced waste storage

Example: Bühler GmbH in Beilngries

Companies, which plan to acquire a new automated storage system, assert high demands on their future system. Especially when they are themselves in the machine and plant engineering branch and also manufacture according to the lean production principle. This is what happened at Bühler GmbH in Beilngries/ Germany. After extensive market research, Bühler plant engineers decided on a quick sheet metal storage system from Friedrich Remmert GmbH that now supports the lean production of professional techniques for grain management.


Objective

Bühler relies on the Japanese Kaizen philosophy. Its goal is the continuous improvement of the products and services while simultaneously keeping waste at a minimum. Of course, the new warehouse system should support this efficient operating process. Klaus Harrer, production supervisor in the Beilngries plant, says: “At the present time, there are six machines for sheet processing in service on our production line. The output of the new sheet metal warehouse, however, is set up for 10 machines so that we can flexibly expand in the coming years if required.” In addition to this, it was necessary to construct the system on a very small area of the warehouse.

Solution

In only 8 months, Remmert designed, produced and installed the new fully automatic sheet metal system for Bühler. It consists of a rack bay with eleven towers and opposing bay with merely three units. The latter has already been set up for a possible expansion later. A high performance storage and retrieval system travels between both rack bays and enables fast storage and removal. There are currently five processing machines surrounding the new system: Three Bystronic-Lasers Bystar 4020s, a Bystronic water jet cutting device Byjet 2030 and two Trumpf die-cutters. These are mechanically connected to the production line with manually driven vacuum cups. All sheet metal plates, which leave the Remmert warehouse, are processed by Bühler in accordance with the pullprinciple. “This efficient production method requires the highest demands on the quality of implemented storage systems”, Klaus Harrer knows. “The pull-principle requires an especially high system availability. After all, the material is only retrieved when it is directly processed. There is no buffering. Today, we are on the safe side with our new warehouse and a system availability that has been increased to 99 percent.” Matthias Remmert, managing director of Friedrich Remmert GmbH, adds: “A Remmert storage system fulfils all requirements of a Kaizen driven production line. For example, our space saving concept, which we plan for every warehouse, supports the Japanese school of thought very well. This way, we reduce the necessary space required during periods of high storage capacity to an absolute minimum.”

Outcome

“Because of our high volume of orders and the speed of the Remmert storage system, we were able to raise the daily laser cutting time from just under 17 hours to an average of 20 hours”, Klaus Harrer adds. “And I am speaking here of pure “laser on time” - not counting the time for charging and programming the machines. We could not have better used our laser capacity.” The quick storage and retrieval processes are controlled and administered by the PRO WMS Enterprise warehouse management system from Remmert. The logistics software allocates every load carrier of a storage area within the facility according to the chaotic storage principle and by doing this, it optimises the time needed for material movement. Furthermore, inventory control is possible at all times with the intuitive to operate warehouse software, since all incoming and outgoing pallets are automatically weighed. In addition to this, the warehouse management system can be connected to the higher level ERP, if necessary.

Bühler GmbH, which belongs to the Bühler Group, is one of the leading worldwide suppliers of professional technology dealing with management of bulk commodities. The facilities and machines are used in the grain and seed industry, in breweries and malt factories, in the construction and chemical branches, in fodder plants, in fertilizer storage, as well as in the fields of biomass processing and recycling.


Results at a Glance:

High system availability of 99.5 percent
Increased machine utilisation (up to 20 hours a day of pure laser on time)
Optimised high speed track system for the storage and retrieval system
High storage density by compact construction design
Ability to meet future requirements through warehouse expansion
Individual support over the entire system operating period

Technical specifications:

Warehouse size: 51.5 x 8 x 6 m (L x W (double spaced) x H)
Storage Volume: 250 pallets at 5 tons payload capacity each
Sheet metal dimensions: 2 x 4 m
Storage and retrieval system with 100 m/min travel speed
1 stacking and 2 retrieval stations
Remmert PRO WMS Enterprise warehouse software

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