Phoenix Contact awards warehouse automation and expansion project to WITRON

Electronic component manufacturer Phoenix Contact (Blomberg, Germany) has awarded their small parts warehouse (AS/RS) automation and expansion project to WITRON Logistik + Informatik GmbH. Having relied on WITRON's Order Picking System (OPS) through nearly two decades and several previous expansions, Phoenix Contact entered into the new agreement in April 2018 with a designated completion date in the third quarter of 2020. The expansion will take place during ongoing operation at Phoenix Contact's warehouse.

The upgrades are in direct correlation to Phoenix Contact's rapidly changing business environment which has seen a shift in customer purchasing driven by on line ordering. Previously, customers ordered in large quantities, whereas today they order in a much more demand-oriented manner from an assortment of more than 30,000 different products. The changes in the ordering dynamic have resulted in a significant increase in pick volume.

To meet this demand, WITRON will add ten new multi-function ergonomic workstations, bringing the warehouse total to 31. Every workstation will pick orders to totes for larger orders, or corrugated boxes for smaller orders. WITRON's IT system will automatically determine the correct shipping container for each order. Active checking mechanisms and innovative terminal dialogs will guide the logistics operator through the process without errors.

An additional, redundant OPS with two parallel modules will ensure a very high degree of reliability. Stocking each of over 30,000 different products in every module will allow Phoenix Contact to guarantee delivery dates, even in the event of maintenance, errors or unplanned volume fluctuations.

Phoenix Contact's storage capacity is also being increased with additional automated OPS aisles featuring new 60,000 tote storage locations to bring total capacity to 253,000. Nine additional stacker cranes will bring the warehouse total to 36. When completed, the system will be capable of processing more than 2,000 order lines per hour, for an overall increase of 50%.

For More information, visit www.witron.com

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Company URL: http://www.witron.com