Mireille improves new warehouse efficiency with Dematic AutoStore

The laundry company currently has a 400m² warehouse, but the majority of its products will now be stored in its new, compact AutoStore® warehouse, which is just 186m². In addition to saving space, this will also improve efficiency as products will be automatically transported to one of two picking ports. The new system will be operational by the end of the year. 

Due to the expansion of its activities, Mireille wanted to find a way to manage the increasing number of online orders. The currentwarehouse no longer satisfies the increased demand. Mireille opted for Dematic AutoStore® after conducting online research and visiting several different companies.

Koen Vandevenne, Financial Director at Mireille, said: ‘AutoStore® takes up 50% less space than competing systems on the market. The new system also takes ordered goods right to the operators, which means we can work much more efficiently and process more with the same number of people.’ The old warehouse is being retained and will be used for laundry services.

Four robots with 8,000 bins on 16 floors

Mireille has chosen a set-up that offers adequate scope to expand further. The AutoStore® system is dimensioned to be able to double the current requirement, and the company will use 5,000 of the 8,000 bins to begin with. ‘This scalability is one of the big advantages of this system. We can expand capacity in the future without any modification being necessary.’

Another advantage is the system’s compact stacking of bins, which increases the amount of surface area available for the company. Employees don’t need to travel long distances to pick products, which are automatically taken to one of two ports. This results in a huge gain in efficiency.

Some 80% of the orders placed with Mireille are for products that will be stored in the system. Vandevenne: ‘The fast movers are the only items we’ll keep picking from the pallets manually.’

A reliable partner

Mireille took its time to compare various storage systems available on the market. ‘AutoStore® came out head and shoulders above the rest, particularly in terms of technology,’ says Vandevenne. ‘Dematic is also a big name in the world of logistics, which was very clear after our initial contacts.’ 

‘The AutoStore® system looks really good, and now we need to make sure it continues to meet expectations in practice. Together with the experts from Dematic, we’re integrating its warehouse management in our ERP package and it will be fully operational by the end of this year,’ concludes Vandevenne.