General contractor IGZ realises project for ebm-papst

Distribution centre for a global player

ebm-papst establishes a new distribution centre which will in future function as the central hub for global distribution of the ventilator manufacturer’s products. In the intralogistics centre, the company relies on SAP EWM and the competences of IGZ as Logimat issuer and SAP EWM general contractor.

As a leading innovator for ventilators and motors, ebm-papst has a suitable solution ready for practically every task in ventilation and driver technology. The product range, with more than 15,000 items, is used in numerous industries, such as ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration technology, household appliances, heating technology, IT and telecommunications as well as passenger vehicle and utility vehicle technology. The group of companies currently employs about 12,000 employees worldwide at 18 production sites and 57 sales locations and achieved sales of about 1.6 billion euros in the business year 2014/2015.

As a reaction to the sustained dynamic growth, ebm-papst invested constantly in process optimisations and capacity expansions in production and logistics. Against this background, in 2015, among other things, the construction of a distribution centre (DC) on a 31,000 m2 area on the company site in Hollenbach was given the green light. “This step was absolutely necessary”, explains Stephan Schölzel, Head of the Logistics Division at ebm-papst. “We had to constantly rent out external warehouses in the area, a fact which, with respect to the expenses connect with it, did not represent a permanent solution.”

“The great challenge is to implement a cross docking process, in the course of which the delivered packaging items are guided directly through the installed pallet conveyor system to the automatic packing lines and then sorted according to destination for shipping”, says Christian Mattes, Managing Director IGZ Automation. An intermediate storage for goods ready for dispatch should be reduced to a minimum.

Within the framework of intensive workshops, in the words of Schölzel, “the intelligence of the system was born”. This is based on the aim of the project, which was to develop a suitable cross docking process for a proportion of the made-to-order products to be determined in cooperation with Sales and Production and to implement the logistics processes in SAP EWM defined together as well as to coordinate the systems technology in the best possible way.

Besides service and quality specifications, safety aspects also had to be considered because ebm-papst holds the status of an “authorised economic operator” as well as the status of “regulated agent” in the air freight sector. Errors in picking and consolidation should also be excluded alongside damages and misloading. “In doing so, it is of immense important to coordinate closely with ebm-papst on structuring processes running in parallel within the meaning of ‘lean production’”, says Mattes. This therefore involves, among other things, the demand for shortened cycle times, reduction of the production batch and transparency of information.

In order to be able to soften spikes in the process sequence, the cross docking concept plans additional preparation and block storage areas. An automatic high bay warehouse, a manually operated bay warehouse for pallets with special sizes as well as an automatic small-parts warehouse (in another expansion stage) will serve to stockpile warehouse items, spare parts, consignment and kanban stocks as well as supply for order picking. With a height of 35m, a width of 30 m and a length of 100 m, the high bay warehouse to be built offers capacity to store almost 19,000 pallets. The spaces are spread out across six alleys, in each of which an automatic stacker crane operates. A separate “safe” air freight area will be part of the distribution centre in the final construction phase.