Efficient Order Consolidation - Automated order consolidation
How we took our customer from task to solution Headquartered in Germany, Hella Distribution GmbH, supplies customers worldwide with automotive parts and accessories for original equipment as well as for the aftermarket sector. To guarantee fast and accurate daily deliveries, extend warehouse capacity, and create an efficient and ergonomic order consolidation process, they opted for an automated Kardex solution.
Hella is an innovative logistics service provider with long-standing experience in the automotive industry. Over 2,000 orders are shipped to global customers every day. Storing these orders until they ship takes up a lot of space
Therefore, Hella wanted to turn their manual processes of loading cartons onto pallets and storing them until needed into an automated solution. Furthermore, they wanted to optimize their processes to increase ergonomics, reduce sort and search times, and minimize walking distances.
Solution
A six-meter high Vertical Buffer Module Kardex Compact Buffer was the most efficient and economical solution to meet all requirements. It works as a consolidation buffer for customer orders awaiting shipment.
Conveyor technology automatically transports various sized cartons, previously prepared for shipment, to the Kardex Compact Buffer, where they are scanned and stored. Once a truck has arrived, a complete retrieval list for the relevant cartons starts. Those, pre-sorted by size and weight and in the right order, are delivered via two access openings. Employees scan the cartons and move them onto a pallet.
”With the Kardex Compact Buffer, we were able to save 80% of storage space and no longer face any capacity restrictions,“ says Raphael Heimann, Project Manager Intralogistics, Hella Distribution GmbH.
