24. Juni 2011
maxon motor - with Stöcklin to Mars
At the end of September maxon motor extended their existing small parts warehouse by one aisle, increasing the warehouse capacity by 11,520 containers.
Steady expansion and continuous growth runs like a red thread through the history of maxon motor. After decades of international activity the company finally gained worldwide fame in 1997 when the "Sojourner" rover landed on Mars.
In 2008 a new logistics center started its operation in Sachseln in central Switzerland. The pivot of this facility is the automated small parts warehouse which is complemented by 5 manual warehouse sections. Stöcklin Logistik was chosen as the partner for the development and implementation of this logistics solution, as well as the aisle extension. Besides the mechanical equipment Stöcklin, as the general contractor, also supplied and implemented the WMS, material flow controller and plant visualization. The central warehouse is used both to temporarily store subassemblies destined for production and to store and pick finished products. Therefore, the processes mapped in the WMS are very complex: at the incoming goods terminal manufactured products, supplier deliveries, additions from the KANBAN cycle and sales returns from customer orders are processed. The received goods are stored in the two-level manual warehouse or in piles in the automated warehouse. The automated section is equipped with our fully automated stacker cranes, type BOXer D-2. This type is a rail-guided, floor-running two mast crane, excelling by its exceptional dynamics achieved through the Omega drive with double toothed belt. According to the employed modules, containers with a variety of dimensions may be stored at single or double depth. The load handling device is realized as a telescopic table provided with two belt conveyors. The conveying orders are transmitted via TCP/IP from the master system to the PLCs of the stacker cranes. Each PLC can hold four orders, which are processed consecutively. After a manufacturing or customer order has been transmitted to the WMS, the system reserves the corresponding stocks. Then, the retrieved containers are supplied to the picking stations. Upon reading the barcode, the container and the quantity to pick is displayed. When the picking process is completed, the containers are returned to the warehouse. The sequences of motions within the warehouse are monitored through a plant visualization system which allows an always updated overview on all ongoing processes. If any failure is detected, the operator can intervene immediately.
The implementation of a partly automated storage and picking system has paid off for maxon motor. With the start-up of the automated small parts warehouse the throughput capacity increased by 30-40 percent, whereas the error rate decreased by 7 percent. With the construction and posterior extension of the central warehouse an important task was accomplished from a logistic point of view to maintain the flexibility towards the volatility of the markets.
