Order fulfilment system for 3PL Wilhelm Hammesfahr
Wilhelm Hammesfahr is a third party logistics service provider (3PL) in the personal care sector. Hammesfahr picks and delivers 600 different products in Monheim, Germany for the Henkel company. Products are delivered to points of sale in packaging that is ready for sale. Deliveries are made to 600 sales outlets everyday.
Vanderlande built a goods-to-man order picking system with ten pick-to-light workstations in Monheim.These were equipped with four repacking stations and two QUICKSTORE miniloads (AS/RS) with single-product totes. In a 12-hour period, 50,000 order lines can be picked and processed in the automated warehouse.
Staff at Hammesfahr can pick as many as 600 items per hour at peak times. A compact layout of order picking workstations makes this possible: the order picker has a pick face of 10 totes; the packer is equipped with a mobile packing table. In order to actually achieve the system performance required with the designated number of staff, Vanderlande initially conducted an in-depth simulation. The system has led to an increase in productivity and improved delivery quality: personnel costs have been reduced as a result of a better pick performance. The new system has also improved order picking accuracy.
