Robotic goods-to-person picking system in Erlensee

Investments like this are certainly not an everyday occurrence and need careful consideration. Still, it's essential to keep pace with technology and lay the groundwork for even better services and logistics processes. "Of course, you invest to secure past success and prepare for further growth, but it's just as important to grow with your customers – and above all, to have what it takes to keep up with that growth in the first place!", says our managing director Raimund Bergler.

This is exactly what we now want to create at our Erlensee warehouse site. Here, where around 40 of our employees pick, pack and ship countless orders every day for our fulfillment customers across more than 11,000 square meters of warehouse space, an automated picking system will soon provide great support and unlock new potential for us as well.

The system from manufacturer "Geek+" is currently still on its way by sea, but it should arrive at our Erlensee site around mid-May. It's what's known as a "goods-to-person picking system". The fairly simple-sounding principle behind this high-tech system can be described as follows: the picking system consists on the one hand of specially designed shelving units, and on the other of autonomous robots. In shape, the robots resemble the well-known robotic vacuum cleaners used at home, though they are considerably larger and noticeably more powerful.

When an order comes in from one of our customers and an item is needed from a particular storage shelf, the robot sets off, drives under the shelf, picks it up piggyback-style and carries it to the picking area. There, the employee then removes the item from its respective compartment and prepares it for shipping.

The process sounds simple, but the effort behind getting a picking system like this ready to go is considerably greater. Right now, we're using every free minute to work on IT integration and adapt our hardware-side processes to the new system. This naturally also includes seamlessly integrating the thousands of items from our fulfillment customers stored in Erlensee into the automated picking workflows.

Betting on digitalization and warehouse logistics 4.0 in Erlensee pays off in several ways at once. When the shelf comes to our employees instead of the other way around, they have to cover far fewer walking distances each day, which is already a major relief for them. At the same time, the time saved enables more precise picking, as well as faster and consistently high output. All of this ensures price stability and higher shipping quality for our customers.

Of course, the available space at our Erlensee warehouse site can also be used even more efficiently. Our storage density increases, because the specially designed shelving units can be placed much closer together than conventional high-bay racking. Here, where autonomous robots approach the storage shelves from below, lift them and carry them away, there's simply no need for anyone to squeeze in between.

Despite the incredible number of setup and preparation steps, we're already really looking forward to bringing our new goods-to-person picking system into operation. And we're making good progress: we've already almost completed the so-called put-away and replenishment process – in other words, the goods-receiving process. We're also tackling the master data and evaluations needed to make optimal use of the system. After that, we'll take care of all the remaining processes so that everything is properly configured by the time the picking system goes into operation in June.

We'll keep you updated in our progress diary!