WITRON's award winning technology
February 23rd 2009 WITRON is claiming its share of the 2008 Planet Retail awards success of its client, EDEKA Handelsgesellschaft Rhein-Ruhr, which bagged the innovation award in the supply chain category. The firm operates a highly advanced automated DC in Hamm, Germany, equipped with a highly efficient automated picking system known as OPM (Order Picking Machinery), the brainchild of WITRON Logistik + Informatik.
The awards, selected and agreed by a panel of 30 analysts, are assigned for innovative marketing, store and sales concepts, technologies or leading logistics strategies. Planet Retail analyses and evaluates retail companies throughout the world when determining their award winners.
The 2008 Innovation Award: Supply Chain went to EDEKA Handelsgesellschaft Rhein-Ruhr, which operates one of Europe’s most advanced distribution centers in Hamm, Germany. The DC is equipped with a highly efficient automated picking system known as OPM (Order Picking Machinery). OPM is the brainchild of WITRON Logistik + Informatik, a systems integrator located in Parkstein, Germany.
More than 11,000 different items are picked and packed by means of the WITRON technology. The OPM system is also being used successfully in installations for Kroger in the USA and Mercadona in Spain. Edeka is leading the field particularly, since the central warehouse in Hamm is operating the highest number of different articles without human intervention.
Edeka supplies 880 stores in North Rhine-Westphalia from its central warehouse in Hamm-Rhynern. The automated high bay warehouse provides more than 40,000 pallet locations and serves as replenishment warehouse for the picking systems. A product analysis within the planning phase has shown that 85 % of Edeka’s dry goods assortment can be picked fully automatically. On peak days, more than 240,000 cases are mechanically picked onto pallets and into roll containers in a store-friendly sequence without the use of personnel. The warehouse in Hamm is part of Edeka’s master plan for optimising a nationwide supply chain.
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