The system is self-optimising and constantly prepares the following orders by having the robots on the surface pre-sort the required material. They manage the product groups completely independently. To facilitate this, all goods are stored and picked using a box system. Almost 50,000 containers, referred to as bins, are stored side by side and one on top of the other – up to 24 bins can be stacked on top of each other. The robots collect the products required by travelling across the grid structure and sorting the bins accordingly. The products ordered are then taken to one of the three order picking stations, where a member of staff prepares the items for shipping.
Following order picking, internal processing (markings, sealing face protection and more), packaging and shipping take place directly at the automatic small parts storage system. Direct shipment via a parcel service provider is supported technically by the system and enables online tracking. In future, the period between entering the system and ready-to-collect should be a maximum of three hours. This leads to much faster turnaround times in the entire process and the resulting shorter delivery times ultimately benefit the customer. If the order is available by a given time, the goods are with German customers within 24 hours and with European customers within 48 hours. Another system highlight: it can be extended with little effort at any time in any direction. Obstacles do not matter, the structure is adjusted accordingly.