We're increasing Productivity using an automated Logistics Warehouse

State-of-the-art technology as a useful addition – continuously more employees

Same-day deliveries and smooth processes at one of the biggest warehouses near Berlin: at Ingram Micro CFS Eurohub Fulfilment GmbH in Großbeeren, we're doing a lot to guarantee that e-commerce articles are processed quickly and efficiently. The COVID-19 pandemic brought an additional big push to online retail this year and last year. The logistical effort behind that is enormous. In order to handle the increased customer demand in e-commerce, our company already started operating a new automated warehouse two years ago. The automated warehouse spans half of the 850,000 sq ft premises and significantly speeds up work processes. However, this modernisation does not equal fewer employees. Quite on the contrary: "We have been increasing our workforce for some years now. Without the improvements of our warehouse technology, we simply could not have handled the increased volume. This also requires more warehouse employees in particular," Senior Manager Continuous Improvement at Ingram Micro Holger Flegel says. Currently, 2,600 female and male colleagues are working in three shifts to ensure the over 20 million articles, mostly from online fashion retail, arrive at the customers' doors on time.

Photo: X21de Reiner Freese

Despite the currently difficult external circumstances, we always aim to increase productivity and make processes more efficient. We handle orders using a combination of automated and manual processes. Our Pick employees commission the articles into boxes aided by software; those articles were ordered by end clients in the online shop. The software pre-sorts the orders depending on urgency – same-day deliveries are assigned the highest priority, for example. "At our automated Pick area, the articles are taken to the employees. At the manual Pick area, we have set Pick zones which significantly minimise walking distances," Holger explains. All workstations are ergonomic and equipped with anti-fatigue mats to ensure the physical health of our employees. Additionally, employees do not have to bend and stretch at the shelves when working at automated workstations.

Photo: X21de Reiner Freese

Pocket Sorter sorts the articles and merges them into one order

The Pocket Sorter makes work palpably easier for Sort employees. The clue: the Pocket Sorter sorts the different articles from one order and merges them. "This means manual and oftentimes annoying order sorting is a thing of the past. We also managed to significantly minimise the error rate with this system," Holger says. Above the employees' heads, the Pocket Sorter transports the needed articles in pouches to the Pack stations. There is only one article per pouch.

Pocket Sorters are a particularly useful addition in e-commerce, as long as a certain order volume is met and the articles are suitable for the process. The Pack employee then gets the entire order on their station and only has to scan and pack the articles. The packages are then sorted according to the respective carrier and country of destination. The articles are pre-sorted for the respective carrier and loaded onto swap bodies. With this new technology, we managed to triple our output quantity in the past years.

Foto: X21de Reiner Freese

Automatic storage

The new Warehouse Management System (WMS) ensures the articles are automatically stored in a fully automated shuttle storage after Receive. When unloading articles from a lorry, so-called Boom Conveyors help the employees. These are conveyors with a basket at the end that can be extended like a telescope. This means employees no longer have to unload individual boxes from a lorry. Instead, they can drive into the lorry with the conveyor and put the individual boxes onto the conveyor while standing in the basket. After the boxes are labelled automatically, they are automatically received in the Receive Tunnel. "The tunnel basically works like a frenzy of flashing cameras: the article is scanned from all sides and then automatically transported either to the manual storage for immediate picking, or sorted into the shuttle storage," Holger explains. The software also automatically registers if an article is no longer in stock at the Pick zones and autonomously organises re-stock.

Photo: X21de Reiner Freese

Ingram Micro include employees in change processes

In addition to physical health, as a company, we also consider it paramount to actively involve our employees in change processes. That is why we regularly invite the best performers from each area to a workshop. The people responsible have already integrated some of the workshop participants' improvement proposals regarding ergonomics and process details into everyday work life. The improvement proposals are always checked for their practicability in connection to the neighbouring areas and processes, and then implemented as soon as possible. "We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved as a team with our partners. Our new Warehouse Management System's introduction and process stability were only possible due to the great team spirit and the flexibility in reacting to new challenges," Holger states.

Photo: Ingram Micro CFS Eurohub Fulfilment GmbH