Cutting-edge: Warehouse automation for Simon Hegele
On the northeastern edge of Bavaria, high-tech for medical technology meets warehouse automation. Since July 2023, Simon Hegele Logistics and Service has been operating a state-of-the-art logistics center for the production supply of diagnostic and therapeutic imaging in Kemnath, Upper Palatinate, using the volume-efficient small parts storage solution AutoStore. Since January 2022, LOGSOL has now been providing holistic support for this “innovation site with Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) and AutoStore” for almost two years – from data collection to layout and material flow concept and detailed planning to implementation. “We came from the manual world and wanted to integrate a benchmark-capable site,” says Norbert Theyer, Division Manager Healthcare Logistics Germany at Simon Hegele, summing up the goal.
Lean processes and standardized workflows in Upper Palatinate
As a long-standing partner of Siemens Healthineers, the medium-sized contract logistics company operates in Kemnath next to the plant premises a warehouse that offers 24,000 square meters of space for steel rings weighing several tons as well as the smallest electrical engineering components. The industry is characterized by a wide variety of materials and high process variance. In production logistics, Simon Hegele ensures optimized flows of goods synchronized with ongoing operations – including in-plant transport, pre-assembly, production supply, storage and order picking. To ensure future-proof, reliable supply in the Upper Palatinate, a new building was needed to expand logistics capacity by 19,000 square meters. LOGSOL came into play to ensure lean processes and standardized workflows. “Siemens had already had good experience with LOGSOL in Kemnath,” says Norbert Theyer, explaining the decision.
Johannes Schoenmetz has been part of the LOGSOL team since the start of the project and finds it “exciting to be able to accompany the entire process”. Challenging job: Planning “on a greenfield site” in line with requirements, working out an overall logistics concept for the new and old Simon Hegele site, accompanying the go-live. “All processes had to be restructured, technical solutions had to be selected and supplier proposals had to be processed,” Norbert Theyer describes the mammoth task. In three decades with the leading medical technology logistics company, he worked with a logistics consultant for the first time: “It took a lot of pressure off me to get results from LOGSOL and to be able to make decisions based on them.”
Due to long delivery times, storage technology tendered in parallel with planning
In the first six months, LOGSOL worked on rough concepts before moving on to the detailed planning of the preferred variant in mid-2022. Once the new logistics center was ready to move in by January/February 2023, the team was able to put it into operation step by step. As a challenge, Johannes Schoenmetz highlights very long delivery times due to the effects of the pandemic and energy crisis. But despite difficult conditions, LOGSOL wanted to ensure an early go-live date: “Therefore, we adjusted the project schedule and tendered warehouse technology ahead of schedule, in parallel with the planning.” In this way, the original schedule could be adhered to in all phases, as Norbert Theyer notes with satisfaction.
By October 2023, as a second component alongside the AutoStore, LOGSOL had developed the AGV concept with automated reach trucks. “They have the advantage that, in the final stage of expansion, they store and retrieve material directly to/from the rack,” explains Johannes Schoenmetz. Against the background of rising personnel costs, such automation technologies are “becoming increasingly attractive for companies investing in the future”, he says.
Due to the successful cooperation, Norbert Theyer “would definitely like to call on LOGSOL again next time”. He particularly appreciated the excellent accessibility of the team.
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