Storage and retrieval
October 1st 2007 When British Gas
commissioned its new
12,800m2 distribution
centre in Leicester,KNAPP
was awarded the contract
to supply the facility's £6
million automated
handling and storage
system. At the heart of
the logistics solution are
four different storage and
retrieval systems: a 2-aisle
Automated Storage and
Retrieval System (ASRS),
two KNAPP Order, Storage
& Retrieval (OSR) systems
and a pick-from-pallet
Very Narrow Aisle (VNA)
installation. Goods are
stored in and picked from
these ASRS, OSR and VNA
areas according to product
dimensions and usage.
Faster-moving lines are
stored in one of the
37,600 storage positions
in the ASRS, where two
miniload cranes retrieve
totes from the higher
storage positions and
place them adjacent to
18 picking stations on
two levels. Ordered items
are picked from the
miniload storage totes by
operators using pick-bylight
technology. Slowermoving
and small parts
are stored in the KNAPP
OSR16 storage and
retrieval system. Here,
20,608 trays can be
stored, but – as many of
these stored parts are
physically small – the
trays are subdivided into
compartments, resulting
in a total of 44,780
compartments. Order
picking at the three OSR
workstations is also
facilitated by KNAPP pickby-
light technology. More articles from KNAPP UK Ltd: | 
