WITRON Realizes New Logistics Center for ATP

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL--(Marketwired - Aug 6, 2013) - Auto-Teile-Pöllath - "ATP" is an Upper Palatinate family company founded in 1989 with a total of 200 employees. They recently selected innovative e-commerce solutions from WITRON for their logistic expansion plans.

More than 20,000 ATP customers from Germany and neighboring countries place their orders via the Internet. Those internet customers can select from more than 9,500 different products from the automotive area, especially spare and wear parts, tools, and automotive equipment.

Productive use for the new logistics center in Pressath, Germany began in May 2013. In a peak hour, the new center processes up to 1,400 customer orders and ships some 1,500 packages. The goal is to provide customers with next day service if they order by 3:00 PM.

"The proximity of ATP to WITRON was not the only reason for awarding them with the order. Among many other competitors, WITRON convinced us with the best solution which perfectly fits our various requirements", says ATP owner Peter Poellath. "The WITRON logistics modules are cost-efficient, innovative, ergonomic, and designed for further growth. This is what we were looking for to further increase our customer service".

Based on their throughput and article structure, ATP implemented the goods-to-man solution OPS (Order Picking System) as well as the pallet picking system "Ergonomic Tray Picking" (ETP).

The OPS solution consists of a 7-aisle AS/RS with more than 40,000 locations. 8 workstations enable picking directly into dispatch cartons according to the dynamics and flexibility required for the E-Commerce business. An additional 6 workstations can be added in the future to meet growth.

Heavy and bulky articles are picked with the ETP module using three man-aboard pick mobiles (full build-out to 12) within a 7 aisle pallet high bay warehouse consisting of 12,000 locations.

Orders are picked in three aisles, while four aisles are equipped with automatic stacker cranes for replenishment of the pick front. The pick mobiles are compactly aligned in every pick aisle - two mobiles on the same rail down-aisle, and two-levels of mobiles, one atop the other.

Customer orders are picked from pallets into a pick container equipped with a shelf. This approach enables multiple orders to be picked in parallel by one employee. The pick mobiles are automatically guided to the correct picking locations, and a terminal on the mobile displays the pick quantity to insure maximum picking accuracy.

Completely picked orders are transported to the packing workstations via transfer cars and dispatch lanes. A customer-related order consolidation between the OPS area and the ETP area ensures that a customer receives the fewest number of packages possible for his or her order.

Besides the system design, WITRON was also responsible for the entire project realization, information technology, and the PLC control system. WITRON also supplied many of the mechanical elements within the system.