Witron builds a new distribution centre for Febi Bilstein
April 15th 2008 Ferdinand Bilstein GmbH + Co. KG (Febi Bilstein), based in Ennepetal, Germany, is planning to invest 32 million Euros in the expansion of its logistical infrastructure in the coming years. The most important part of the extensive investment package is an automated distribution centre, which is currently being constructed at the 30,000m2 Ennepetal site. The warehouse and picking system was planned by Witron, which also has responsibility as general contractor for the entire logistics system, rollout and on-site service. The new distribution centre with a size of 22,000m2 will start productive use in January 2009.
An international market leader in the open automotive spare parts market, Febi offers the after sales market a programme of more than 20,000 OEM quality automobile and utility vehicle parts at an attractive cost-to-performance ratio. “The years from 2001 to 2006 implicated a tremendous increase in demands,” explains Frank Boecker, head of logistics at Febi Bilstein. “Since our existing logistics footprint could not be expanded due to location reasons, we developed a greenfield concept together with Witron for building a new distribution centre.”
Ulrich Schlosser from Witron comments: “The warehouse and picking system used in the new Febi distribution centre is based on our sophisticated system modules OPS - Order Picking System and MPS - Module Picking System. In combination, both systems cover the huge range of Febi's spare parts programme for the automotive and commercial vehicle sector without any problems – also taking into account the future forecasted article growth.”
Both systems are linked up by the Parkstein system provider on the basis of information and process technology, so Febi Bilstein benefits from an integrated transparency of all material flows. As part of the OPS, Witron is going to integrate an automated small parts warehouse comprising of 10 aisles and 100,000 double-deep tote locations. A loop manages the supply of the ten pick stations with storage totes. According to the Pick & Pack principle, goods are directly picked into customer cartons and provided for dispatch. This is done according to a server-generated volume calculation. “Sequence buffers separate all automated warehouse processes from picking and ensure high performance,” comments Schlosser.
The MPS area will be extended by an additional twelve workstations that cover the parallel loading of several order pallets. “These workstations are also supplied and cleared fully-automated,” adds Schlosser. The pallet replenishment for the MPS module comes from a seven-aisle high bay warehouse with 40,000 locations – also double-deep. “Both systems make it possible for us to integrate additional articles and product lines into the programme and satisfy increasing demand for Febi articles,” says Boecker.
With the new warehouse logistics system opening in 2009, Febi Bilstein will be able to store more than 20,000 different articles, process some 30,000 daily orderlines, and offer its customers higher product availability with shorter delivery times. More articles from Witron Engineering: | 
