New Warehouse in Ringsted (DK)

SuperGros relies on DAIFUKU

SuperGros is a purchasing cooperative of independent supermarkets in Denmark. The country’s number 1 wholesale grocer is expanding and building an additional consignment stock warehouse at the facility location in Ringsted. Material handling specialist DAIFUKU Europe Ltd. as general contractor has taken over the planning and realization of the new building.

MÖNCHENGLADBACH. “There were several reasons that moved SuperGros management to decide on DAIFUKU Europe Ltd. as the general contractor for this project: on the one hand, there was the excellent cooperation on the expanding of an existing SuperGros storage facility in 2004; on the other, the convincing project cooperation during the strategic planning phase,” reports Thomas Balluff, Sales Manager Continental Europe and Manager for Germany at DAIFUKU.

The planned integrated consignment stock warehouse with its clad rack construction has nine aisles with 20,544 pallet locations as well as 1,984 storage sites in the order picking zone. System engineers at DAIFUKU developed a convincing concept for the flow of goods within the warehouse: incoming goods are registered by the warehouse management system (WMS) and then channelled into a pallet sorter line to a sorting transfer vehicle (STV).

This vehicle is conveniently located on a platform between the ground floor and the first upper floor in order to free more space for the order picking zone. The STV loop links the shipping and receiving hoisting systems to the storage and retrieval stations of the automatic warehouse and the order picking stations. Pallets are transported at speeds of up to 160 m/min. Another argument in favour of using the STV loop, in addition to the transport speed that is higher by far than conventional conveying technology, was the care with which goods are transported. “The STV vehicles are situated like rafts beneath the pallets and ‘carry’ them virtually through the warehouse,” explains Thomas Balluff.

In the incoming goods area, the STV distributes goods to be stored among the nine rack aisles. There the pallets are taken over by DAIFUKU storage and retrieval systems and stored. For order picking, goods as per customer orders are retrieved fully-automatically – with the help of the WMS – from one of the two picking levels in the automatic warehouse and staged on gravity conveyors to the left and right of the aisle. Orders are assembled with the aid of pick-by voice. This allows staff to process several orders simultaneously. Completed partial orders are handed over at the pallet delivery stations to the goods-out lift unit. After assembly of the order, goods in shipping on the ground floor are automatically secured on the pallets by means of plastic sheeting. Afterwards on the loading ramps, the outgoing goods are consolidated and are now ready for collection.

DAIFUKU Europe Ltd. – the Company

Founded in 1937, Daifuku currently employs more then 4,100 employees and has an annual turnover of approx 1.46 Billion Euro. As a global leader in automated materials handling systems they account for 20 percent of the total market. In addition to the three main manufacturing plants in Japan, the company group owns plants in Malaysia and in the USA. Independent branch offices in the UK, Germany as well as partners in Spain, Portugal and Scandinavia form part of the European group. Worldwide more then 28,000 Daifuku cranes and more then 3,000 Sorting Transfer Vehicles – STV – are now in use. Reference customers include: ICA, Netto, SuperGros, Canon, Samsung, DeLaval, Levi Strauss, Lever Fabergé, Sharp, Nissin, IBM and Opel. Please find additional information relating to DAIFUKU Europe Ltd on the internet at www.DAIFUKUeurope.com.