Solingen enjoys an excellent international reputation as the center of the German cutlery industry. And not just for classic table cutlery: when it comes to safety knives for industrial applications and the logistics sector, specialists have also developed here - like the Martor company. To further expand its leading market position, it recently optimized its warehouse and shipping processes with a system from MiniTec. A field report.

More efficient processes between warehouse and packaging

In 2019, an extension was added to the company building, which resulted in various organizational restructuring measures. Among other things, the previous production areas were used for an expansion of the finished goods warehouse and shipping. Uwe Longerich, Head of Logistics, recalls: "In this context, we wanted to reduce walking distances and gripping times in order to remain marketable and to accommodate Martor's growth in logistics as well. We considered various concepts as to where and how times could be saved. This eventually led to the basic idea of linking the picking warehouse and packing station."

Until now, picking had been done completely manually. Each item was picked individually and placed on a staging cart. The employee collected more items until the cart was full, then pushed it to shipping. The colleague there took everything off the cart again, checked the goods again, and then packed them into boxes. "As a result, we had enormous waiting and idle times between picking and shipping," says Longerich. Accordingly, the task was to automate the processes between the warehouse and packaging in order to improve cycle times and optimize the flow of materials.

MiniTec with a partnership approach

As part of the search for a suitable project partner, Martor was in contact with various suppliers who deal with automation in the warehouse. Among them was MiniTec, from which the company already had various systems, such as workstations or roller conveyors.

Longerich explains: "The decision in favor of MiniTec was based on their customer-oriented approach. The other suppliers had all proposed very comprehensive concepts, with full automation etc. With MiniTec, on the other hand, the focus was on cooperation in a spirit of partnership, on jointly approaching a practicable solution. The proximity of our MiniTec customer consultant Steffen Schoft was also very useful, as he could quickly drop by whenever there was something to discuss. Communication with everyone involved was also very good during the implementation phase, for example with Waldemar Dirlein from the design department. This also applied, for example, to feedback when the delivery of a part was slightly delayed (due to the supply chain problems during the pandemic). That always went very well."

At the start of the project, Martor had already worked out a proposal for the rooms and transfer stations, as well as thinking about the conveyor lines (roller conveyors). MiniTec contributed its own ideas, resulting in a joint concept for the final plant.

New plant with well thought-out concept

The new system makes the processes much more efficient. In particular, it avoids the duplicate handling of earlier times.

At the beginning, picking is started by means of the MDE device. The employee takes the required article from a container on the flow rack and places it in a KLT (small load carrier), which is located in front of him on a roller conveyor. He uses this to push the KLT to one of the two transfer stations. The transfer stations are lifts with which the crates are lifted under the ceiling. From there, they are transported to the shipping area via automatically driven conveyor sections under the ceiling. There, a gravity spiral conveyor is used to bring the KLTs back down to floor level. From here, they are automatically transported via conveyor sections to the packing stations.

To avoid stress at the packing tables, a stowage section has been set up after the spiral conveyor where the goods wait. Request buttons are installed at all four workstations. If, for example, tables 1 and 2 are occupied, workstation 3 can still request a KLT via the button.

The employee removes the goods from the crate and packs them. Via the discharge, which is always located between two tables facing each other, the finished packed box is pushed away to the front and then automatically transported to the output stations of DHL, DPD, UPS, etc. The goods are then transported to the output station.

Gravity bowl feeder as a special feature

One challenge of the installation arose from the fact that it was to be distributed over two rooms separated by a wall. Because the intention was to keep the walkways clear, a breakthrough was first required to create the interlinking. Then it was a matter of how the goods in the second room would get back down from the ceiling. Initially, there was the consideration of using a lift there again. However, because "up and down" by lift would take an unnecessarily long time, MiniTec suggested using the gravity-driven bowl feeder mentioned above instead. MiniTec has designed this so perfectly that today even an empty KLT travels all the way down by its own weight alone, without stopping anywhere. "That is also something that not everyone can realize in this way," Uwe Longerich is convinced.

Significant time saving

The new solution has significantly reduced the lead time from order entry to shipping, according to the production manager, Andreas Ide: "This is already very noticeable for the customer and is an improvement because their orders leave the company much faster. At the same time, our sales department now has a much better overview of which items from an order have already been picked and which are still being processed." Uwe Longerich adds, "The new system has also enabled us to save on picking personnel - not to lay them off, but to use them more sensibly elsewhere."

Optimized logistics as a competitive advantage

According to Marketing Manager Jens Augustin, the changeover also gives Martor tangible advantages on the market: "Our competitors are increasingly having to deal with delivery problems, of course also because of interrupted supply chains due to the pandemic. In contrast, at Martor we not only have all products in stock, but thanks to the new plant we can even get them to the customer faster than before. This gives us an image boost and a competitive edge - and in difficult times!"

Flexible for the future

Uwe Longerich is relaxed about future growth: "The plant is designed in such a way that we have the option of expanding it with MiniTec at any time. For example, we could move the packing area even further to the rear and thus gain even more buffer distance. Our packing tables have also been designed and built by MiniTec, with pull-outs for printers, with computer arm attachments. And there, too, you can change the shelf height at any time, for example, or add another device, a printer holder or a scanner holder. Here, too, the flexibility of the MiniTec system is very beneficial to us."

Assistance system and workstations as new projects

Due to the very positive experience with the plant, Martor will extend its cooperation with MiniTec to other topics. A first new project - in a completely different area - has already been initiated, according to Andreas Ide: "Because we were very satisfied with the system, from planning to implementation to acceptance, and also because the general cooperation with MiniTec was absolutely positive, we decided to make ourselves available as beta testers for MiniTec SmartAssist. The assistance system will be used in knife assembly. We hope that the employees will already receive support from the system during their initial training. If it works with our test product, we will expand it to other items." In addition, the assembly tables in production will soon be replaced by those from MiniTec, says Uwe Longerich: "With MiniTec, we have developed a standard table for our production that optimally covers our requirements and is flexible for expansions."

Positive conclusion

Andreas Ide's summary of MiniTec is extremely positive: "Martor didn't need a supplier for the plant and other optimization projects, but a partner who would support us and drive our projects forward in a targeted manner. We have clearly found this partner in MiniTec!