New logistics building of Conductix-Wampfler inaugurated

Commitment to the location in Weil am Rhein / investments of 1.1 milion Euro / flexible intralogistics concept.

Weil am Rhein, September 2009. The Conductix-Wampfler AG have officially inaugurated their new logistics building at the Weil am Rhein location on Thursday, September 24, 2009. In front of around 40 guests from politics, administration and finance, as well as business partners and employees of the organization, the executive of the company, Daniel Dörflinger, emphasized the importance of this investment for the location in Weil am Rhein. „For us, as a leading company in technology, the German location plays a key role as technology center in Europe. We have our historic roots in the South of Baden and here we see our future“, says Dörflinger.

In spite of the economic crisis Conductix-Wampfler has invested a total of 1.1 million Euro into the new logistics building and the respective infrastructure. The planning stage already started in October 2008. The old air-inflated hall had to be dismounted and the goods had to be stored temporarily in a tent. The building activities for the new logistics building started in February 2009. The hall’s floor area is approximately 1400 square meters and it is regarded as a very modern building with regard to structural and energetic aspects. „We will use the hall for storage and consignment sale “, declared Dörflinger. It has however been conceived deliberately in such a way that in future it could be used for manufacture or assembly as well, in case of potential structural changes.


State of the art technology

The layout of the logistics building allows the set up of different zones, currently consisting of an inbound and a high-rack storage area, a small-parts warehouse on two levels, which can be extended over three levels and a kitting zone.

The high-rack storage area is operating over three aisles with a length of 40 meters each and a height of 7.50 meters. In total the storage capacity reaches approximately 2000 pallets. The logistics building has been equipped with a state-of-the-art technology and satisfies all modern ergonomic criteria.

Two “Order Picking Stacker Trucks” are used in the aisles of the high rack storage where the operator directly moves in a lifting platform to the corresponding stock place to run all stocking and picking operations.




Optimization of the internal flow of material

„Upon implementation of the processes at the new logistics building the internal flow of material at the Weil am Rhein location will be changed to a so called “pull production”, emphasizes Christian Merkl, manager of production and logistics in Weil am Rhein, who is also responsible for the global development of production and logistics of the Conductix-Wampfler Group. The required material for the assembly workplaces will be made available when needed "Pulled on demand – Just in time" and will no longer be pushed to the workplaces the evening before.

The picking operators are guided through the different warehouse zones following optimized routes in order to retrieve the requested parts. Already at this picking stage the operator uses special kitting trolleys to pre-group all parts. Finally an additional grouping process in the kitting zone creates the customized kit as one unit for each assembly order.

Sequenced for each assembly line, all units will be supplied at hourly intervals with a milk run to each staging area of each working place.

„Our new logistics building is one key element of the new production and logistics concept. In the next step we will change today’s layout of our assembly area according to the „LEAN“-principles. The redesigned assembly lines will be an additional success factor to strengthen our position within the new Conductix-Wampfler Group”, declared Merkl.

The concept includes, also the remodelling of the staging areas served by the milk run, to further simplify the material handling and overall material flow.