Case Study
Automation Made to Order: Arvato – the basis for flexibility in action
Beauty products today, fashion items tomorrow – the sector-hopping third-party logistics provider (3PL) Arvato wants to offer their customers new solutions, and they need good ideas for that. The systems need to work perfectly with the items they handle today, and also be as flexible as possible, smoothly switching to other types of merchandise as and when required. That’s a tough challenge! Tough, but not impossible. Partners Arvato and KNAPP have proved this together by creating the first fully integrated distribution platform for beauty products in Europe for DOUGLAS.
Partnership milestones
Numerous successful businesses rely on Arvato, and Arvato relies on KNAPP. The two companies have been working together for more than 20 years, developing ideal solutions for Arvato’s customers side by side. The teams meet often to work on new projects and exchange ideas, sparking each other’s creativity. Over the years, they have built a strong sense of mutual trust. Sharing the same fundamental values makes it easy for KNAPP and Arvato to work together as equals. From this close and equal partnership, innovative solutions emerge.
The first fully integrated beauty platform in Europe
Arvato Supply Chain Solutions is implementing a comprehensive omnichannel warehouse concept for their customer DOUGLAS that will fulfill both e-commerce and store orders. The tailor-made warehouse automation concept will boost flexibility and throughput, allowing DOUGLAS to react to tight delivery deadlines for stores and e-commerce orders in a cost-efficient way even during seasonal peaks. For the new distribution center, KNAPP will deliver a highly dynamic shuttle system with the newest 2D-generation OSR Shuttle™ Evo. This system boasts around 130,000 storage locations, 32 modern ergonomic work stations and a storage and retrieval capacity of 12,500 containers per hour, all managed by material flow software KiSoft. In a total space of 38,000 m², Arvato will be managing all the logistics and fulfillment for orders selected from up to 150,000 different DOUGLAS products, shipping to the DACH region and the Netherlands.
Today for tomorrow
For logistics service providers like Arvato, flexibility is key. Their warehouses may need to process fashion items one day, and beauty products the next. It’s crucial to keep this flexible usage scheme in mind right from the start in the planning and design phase. Every warehouse area is designed to support the logistics processes of Arvato and DOUGLAS perfectly, while remaining flexible and open for future changes to processes or products. The warehouse can be expanded to handle up to 8,000 shipping units an hour. Some components, such as the three cross belt sorters, are already designed for the projected final workload to keep the impact on production or picking during an expansion to a minimum.
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Michael Schröder
Business Development Manager