Once again at the cutting edge
viastore modernizes production warehouse for Eppendorf Instrumente GmbH
When downtimes in an automatic warehouse increase, it is time for a basic overhaul. viastore systems has therefore updated the ageing tray warehouse installed by a third party at Eppendorf Instrumente GmbH in Hamburg. Drives have been replaced, new controllers fitted and a modern warehouse management system installed. The warehouse was back in operation with improved performance after just five days. Availability and provision of spare parts are once again assured.
The automatic mini-load system (MLS) had been in service for 25 years. It provided the production facility of Eppendorf Instrumente GmbH in Hamburg with the parts and components required for the manufacture of sophisticated laboratory equipment. The company is a subsidiary of Eppendorf AG, which manufactures systems for life science research. Products range from consumables such as reaction vessels, pipettes, dispensers and centrifuges to complete sets of equipment for DNA replication or biochips. The company was founded in 1945 at the site of the University Hospital in Hamburg-Eppendorf. Today, the company has more than 2,000 employees worldwide and an annual turnover of more than 400 million euros.
Increasing failures, missing functions
The MLS plays a small but not insignificant part in this economic success. Electronic boards, plastic parts, fixing materials and components for the production of laboratory equipment up to 3 kg in weight are stored in the 1,620 tray locations of the single-aisle warehouse. The warehouse was built in 1985. In order to maintain productivity, the drive equipment had already been updated at the end of the 1990s. But now, the age of the system was becoming more evident, as Ralf Nobereit, responsible for internal logistics at Eppendorf Instrumente, explains: “The number of failures was increasing, and in the meantime it was becoming difficult to obtain replacements for many electronic components.“ Take the control system for example. This was a Simatic S5-compatible PC-PLC on a Windows 95 platform. Not exactly state-of- the-art from a technological point of view. Furthermore, Ralf Nobereit was no longer satisfied with the functionality of the control software. “The system did not permit random storage. In other words, an item could only ever be stored on a particular tray. If more parts had to be stored than this tray could hold, the system did not work.“ Miroslav Micevski raises another point: “At that time, the PLC software was produced here on site and was not connected to a higher-level software system in any way. Also, it was not possible to analyze faults, and this made fault finding more difficult.“
Micevski is an electrical/mechanical engineer in the production department. He is also entrusted with the maintenance of the automatic warehouse and therefore directly affected by the absence of fault analysis. As the warehouse operational processes were not stored, it was impossible to trace what had happened if something went wrong. It would therefore take Micevski a long time to rectify a fault. And in this time, it was not possible to replenish production.
Experienced modernizer sought
“We therefore finally decided to fundamentally overhaul the whole system“, remembers Nobereit. Only – which specialist company should be given this task? The original warehouse provider no longer existed in this form, and the company which had modernized the drive equipment back then had in the meantime been taken over by another company. After Nobereit had obtained various comparative quotations, he finally came across viastore systems GmbH in Stuttgart. The company provides turnkey intralogistics systems and is not only an expert in automatic storage systems but also has the appropriate warehouse software in its portfolio. “We were particularly impressed by the fact that viastore explicitly offered to overhaul existing equipment – even from third-party companies“, says Ralf Nobereit. “With this supplier, we were able to obtain all services from one source – drive equipment, control systems and software. And viastore was able to demonstrate extensive experience in the modernization of old systems.“ The specialists at Eppendorf made use of this prior to order placement and inspected systems which viastore had modernized.
Pre-configured warehouse management
The specialists at viastore and Eppendorf jointly produced a functional specification, which, along with the replacement of the drives and control systems, also included the installation of the viad@tONE warehouse management software and connection of the system to Eppendorf's existing BAAN ERP system. “With viad@tONE, we provide complete software for automatic warehouses with low complexity“, explains Frank Orbke, who is the point of contact for Warehouse Modernization and Conversion at the viastore subsidiary in Löhne. “The software package is pre-configured and includes the most important basic functions for warehouse management, material flow control and system visualization.“ This enables short project times to be achieved and offers low-cost entry into professional warehouse management. This WMS also provides an outstanding basis for future expansions. “The effort required to customize the warehouse management system was relatively low“, confirms Nobereit. “
Only one special feature had to be taken into account“, reflects Nobereit. “A good 90-percent of the items that we retrieve from the store are unplanned.“ This is because the manufacturing facility at Eppendorf Instrumente works using the KANBAN system. Nobereit: “There is no retrieval order; we simply tell the system to fetch a particular item. In doing so, a data record is produced with the information that a particular quantity of this item has been removed from the store.“ This data record is also passed to the ERP system. Generally, in the modernized system, every retrieval is now automatically sent to the company software. Wolfgang Reich, responsible for internal logistics: “There used to be retrieval lists which were filled in by hand when picking. I then had to enter these manually into the ERP system.“ Eppendorf also makes use of the viad@t inventory function. “Previously, we did not have the option to carry out an intermediate check of this kind“, reports Ralf Nobereit. Also, when an item is called, the system shows exactly how many trays it is located on. “This gives us significantly greater stock transparency without having to invest additional work.“
Faster picking
Picking has also become significantly faster. While previously it had been necessary to enter the appropriate tray number – at Eppendorf a complete item of equipment consists of 150 to 180 parts – today it is sufficient to click on the appropriate unit in the system and the eight, ten or twenty corres ponding trays are brought to the picking station. “I can do everything in one go without losing any time“, says Wolfgang Reich. “The monitor at the picking station also shows the compartment on the tray from which something is to be taken.“ The trays are subdivided into eight compartments; the appropriate compartment is highlighted in yellow on the monitor. “This virtually eliminates in correct picking.“ Goods are retrieved using the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) principle. This was something else that was not possible with the old solution and for Ralf Nobereit another reason to modernize the warehouse and its management. In this way, older batches of an item are used first. Furthermore, the FIFO principle is also important for the certification of the company, as Miroslav Micevski emphasizes: “This enables items which may have changed to be differentiated and documented when they are put into store.“ Previously, old and new items on a tray had been identified by stickers.
Back in operation after five days
In total, the modernization of the warehouse took just five working days. In this time, the PLC was replaced, the software was set up, test runs were carried out and the staff trained on the system in parallel. “This tight timescale could only be maintained because we test the software and the control systems as far as possible in house under real operating conditions“, explains Frank Orbke. In addition, the renovation was carried out in the period between Christmas and New Year when manufacturing was in any case at a standstill. “This only had an insignificant effect on the production process“, as Ralf Nobereit emphasizes.
Eppendorf has taken out a service contract with viastore systems to ensure that this continues to be the case should any faults occur. The experts in Stuttgart can connect to the system via the internet and localize and rectify faults online. An important aspect for Nobereit when choosing viastore systems: “We only have a single-aisle warehouse, in other words no possibility to switch to another aisle if a fault occurs. We therefore need an element of safety, and this means that service must also be available.“
