Page 22 - Port Of Hamburg Magazine 04.2019

■ INNOVATIVE INDUSTRY
Fully automatic up to the roof
Brunsbüttel is one of Northern Germany’s leading chemical production centres. Warehouses are essential for every production site. With 40,000 pallet slots, Friedrich A. Kruse jun. Spedition offers industrial companies short distances and secure storage facilities right on site.
Bigbags, barrels, bagged cargoes and Intermediate Bulk Containers – IBCs – are transported 24/7/365 between plants and the Kruse site. Apart from the stretch covered by truck, deposit and withdrawal are fully automatic. Warehousing is fully integrated in the company’s supply chain. “Some of the material for storage consists of semi-finished products that can be withdrawn for further processing precisely as required,” says Peter Steinmeyer, Head of Logistics for the Friedrich A. Kruse Group of Companies.
BARCODES KNOW EVERYTHING
With a built-in conveyor, even the four shuttle trucks embody a special feature. They dock in directly at the warehouse. A chain conveyor shifts the load di- rectly to one of the bays. Without forklift assistance, 20 pallets can be loaded onto the vehicle, or unload- ed, within less than three minutes.
Scanners record the barcode on every package. The ‘I-Punkt’ control centre facilitates checks at any time on what material is involved; if being stored, when it was produced; the location of substances required by the chemical plant; and the quantity available. This is made possible by a data interface with Kruse’s customers. Deposit or withdrawal increases/reduces stock, not just in the warehouse, but simultaneously at the company. Automatic checking also reveals whether packaging is defective or a barcode is in- conclusive. Such items are directly removed and subjected to a manual examination.
The two warehouses rise 42 metres into the sky. Pallets are stacked on 17 floors. Intralogistics here are fully automatic. In a basically chaotic system, the computer seeks the right slot for each individual pal- let. This takes its place on a kind of diagonal elevator and with laser assistance is pushed into the desig- nated slot.
WELL COVERED: CHEMICAL STORAGE AT 17 LEVELS
22 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | December 2019
© HHM / Lengenfelder