In future, Albert Craiss GmbH & Co. KG will be responsible for all intralogistics activities at the Tübingen warehouse and assembly site of a well-known technology group. The logistics expert's task is to ensure absolute just-in-sequence delivery reliability at the plant. Within the next two years, Craiss will implement a new intralogistics concept and modernise the systems. The company already assumed the responsibility for incoming goods, warehousing and logistics as well as production supply and despatch in the last quarter of 2019 – packaging and shipping are to follow. The implementation of the project will make Tübingen the largest of all Craiss locations.
"The project in Tübingen is highly complex and we are only able to tackle it thanks to our many years of expertise in intralogistics," says Jürgen Manuschewski, Tübingen site manager at Albert Craiss GmbH & Co. KG. The logistics service provider was com-missioned by the technology group to reorganise the intralogistics in its warehouse and assembly plant in order to implement short-est throughput times, maximum quality in assembly supply, maxi-mum delivery reliability and minimum process costs. Craiss also takes on the role of a development partner who continuously and actively promotes the optimisation of intralogistics.
By presenting a concept whose implementation includes the streamlining, digitization and acceleration of processes as well as the extensive modernisation of the 8,600-square-meter logistics area, Craiss was able to prevail against eleven competitors in the tendering process. An example of the proposed measures is the integration of so-called "fast-track" parking spaces in the storage area instead of the classic in-sequence supply station for picked orders. These can be freely assigned and, thanks to direct access to every order, enable a highly flexible and quick provisioning of the assembly with a smaller footprint.
Self-regulating control loops operate according to the pull principle and significantly reduce the control effort in the execution of the entire process.
In assembly, the use of multi-level trolleys instead of lattice boxes offers additional space. Replacing the forklift with tugger trains increases safety in production supply and despatch, minimises traffic, reduces noise levels and increases productivity.
Craiss has been responsible for goods receipt, warehousing and logistics as well as production supply and despatch since October 2019. Since the production supply had to be ensured at all times, the takeover by Craiss took place after providing intensive training to 50 employees during normal operation. This year Craiss also plans to take over the packaging and ship-ping departments, which are still part of the technology group. In the future, the service provider will be responsible for all intralo-gistics as a third-party logistics provider (3PL). Manuschewski de-scribes the assignment as a showcase project for Craiss: "We are currently not only building the largest location of our company in Tübingen: We are also setting up the quickest, most efficient state-of-the-art intralogistics system for an extremely varied assembly plant."