dm
Huge space savings realised with carton live storage and an ASRS facility from BITO
Our customer
In 1973, the first dm store opened in Karlsruhe. Today, the retailer of drugstore products has some 3,862 stores in fourteen European countries, including more than 2,069 stores in Germany. In order to make shopping a unique experience, dm has a staff of 66,076 in Europe with 42,663 employees working in Germany. A total of approximately 12,500 different reference lines is collated for dispatch to the individual dm markets from the logistics centre in Weilerswist near Cologne, the distribution centre in Waghäusl, Baden-Wuerttemberg, and the textile distribution centre in Karlsruhe.
Initial situation and customer requirements
- Implement a high-performance storage solution in the dm distribution centre in Weilerswist near Cologne.
- The large variety of approximately 12,500 reference lines from a diversity of suppliers must be collated into dispatch units for dm stores throughout Europe.
- The goal is to create fast and efficient picking processes.
- The enormous variety of goods is to be stored efficiently on as little space as possible.
Some impressions of our customer solution
Project brief
The BITO Solution
Automated product in-feeding
» BITO installed a FLEX carton live storage installation with products being loaded at the rear with a stacker cane.
Integrated conveyor technology
» A conveyor system was integrated to transport containers with picked orders to the dispatch department.
On-site application and key features of our storage solution
- The system has 36 lanes serviced by stacker cranes.
- Stacker cranes automatically feed products into the flow lanes and the buffer storage positions.
- The goods are picked manually into order-related containers.
- Order pickers are supported by a pick-to-light system.
Customer benefits
In what way has the BITO solution helped our customer to realise their full potential?
- Space requirement was reduced by 30%.
- Ergonomic workplace design
- High picking performance with short order throughput times
