AM automation optimizes picking of small quantities from DAW SE production
(Offenau, July 2020) With a comprehensive optimization of the material flow, the building paints manufacturer DAW SE from Ober-Ramstadt is currently creating the basis for sustainable competitiveness. As an important element of intralogistics, AM-Automation is implementing an AutoStore system that significantly simplifies and accelerates the picking of small quantities from DAW production.
Anyone who gives their own living room a new lease of life with “Alpinaweiß” can indirectly enjoy something in common with the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin or the Kremlin Palace in Moscow: the products used for the coating all come from the DAW SE range. Founded in 1885 as “Deutsche Amphibolin-Werke von Robert Murjahn”, the family business is now one of the largest manufacturers of building paints in the world with 5,600 employees and an annual turnover of 1.3 billion euros. The DAW group of companies unites brands such as “Alpina” for the do-it-yourself sector or “Caparol” and “DISBON” for the facade protection of private and commercial properties as well as important cultural monuments.
Summary of all logistics processes
For DAW, the careful use of resources and the protection of the environment are important cornerstones of corporate policy. This requires efficient logistics processes, which DAW is now updating at its headquarters in Ober-Ramstadt, Hesse: Previously spread across numerous buildings on the factory premises, incoming and outgoing goods, logistics and warehousing will in future be combined in three new buildings. In addition to a high-bay warehouse with space for 30,000 pallets, the new distribution center includes a logistics building and an automated AutoStore small parts warehouse with a capacity of up to 12,000 containers right next to it.
A short route to storage
“The AutoStore solution will help us to pick orders with individual small quantities even more effectively in future”
says project manager Jörg Martin from DAW SE. Jörg Martin cites the advantages of AutoStore as the high availability of the system, the automated provision of goods and the ability to create modular designs: “In order to make the transport routes for replenishment as simple as possible, we place the workstation for storing the products right next to the high-bay warehouse,” explains Martin. If required, the pallets loaded with new goods are automatically transported from the high-bay warehouse to the transfer point. Once the products have been stored, the filled containers are automatically returned to the small parts warehouse in the other part of the hall. DAW project manager Jörg Martin:
“This solution saves us time and money because the AutoStore containers are much easier to move back and forth than comparatively bulky and heavy pallets.”
With its proposal for the reorganization of storage and retrieval, AM-Automation was ultimately able to assert itself as a DAW supplier in competition with other AutoStore providers.
AutoStore simplifies order picking
The construction of the new DAW distribution center will take place during ongoing operations and is expected to be completed in early 2022. In addition to the design and integration of the AutoStore system, AM-Automation also supplies the control system for integrating the pallet conveyor technology in the high-bay warehouse area. The AutoStore system will initially be equipped with six R5 Redline robots and has three picking workstations. 330 mm high containers are used for storage, in which containers with a volume of up to 10 liters can be accommodated. While small quantities of products from all DAW brands still have to be removed from storage racks using forklifts and picked manually, AutoStore will make the process simpler, faster and more profitable in future.
