CHANNEL CHAMPION

Operating subsidiaries in 37 countries, Ingram Micro is the world's largest wholesaler of information technology and products. Its subsidiary in Germany works with more than 350 renowned suppliers of computer equipment and technology to bring first class products and services to more than 30,000 specialized trade customers in the whole country. Therefore it won the title Distributor of the Year in 2001 and 2002.

Distribution is the core competency of Ingram Micro's business and is the impetus behind the new, fully modern Regional Distribution Center located in Straubing, Germany. The new center is organized for maximum efficiency and performance to guarantee the best service level for Ingram Micro's customers.

REQUIREMENTS & PREREQUISITES

• Package range: 330 x 220 x 200 mm up to 800 x 800 x 800 mm (l x w x h)
• Weight range of cartons: 0.25 kg up to 50 kg
• Fragile goods (screens, ...)
• Up to 60,000 cartons daily
• Stockkeeping assortment: 25,000 articles
• The expansion of the distribution centre results from the desire to centralise the warehouse management and compensate capacity bottlenecks. The integration into the existing system was a prerequisite.

SOLUTION

Located on a 170,000 square meter site in Straubing, Germany, the new distribution center houses 80,000 square meters of usable area. The RDC I has already been in use since 1999. The second construction section was inaugurated on the 23 July 2008 and put into operation shortly before. The buildings were connected by means of a 700 square meter structure. While the storage area with 60,000 pallets locations and 25,000 beam type locations is served manually, all functions of mechanical conveying and handling run fully automatically. Within the connecting building there are fully automatic storage and retrieval lines in the form of chain conveyors as well.

Small-volume articles are picked into open-topped dispatch cartons. These are manufactured in 4 different sizes by automatic carton erectors, are then equipped with pick lists, labelled and handed over to mechanical conveying and handling. Cartons are moved to the two order picking areas via a central distribution loop. In the first area fast moving goods are picked directly from the pallets into the cartons. Less frequently ordered articles are stored in beam type racks and are prepared from there.

Large-volume articles, e.g. screens, printers, scanners, etc., are taken from the gravity pallet rack directly in the original carton in the third order picking area, the so-called pick-to-belt work places. The cartons are combined via conveyor belts and vertical conveyors from 6 order picking tunnels from 3 levels. An additional pick-to-belt picking line was installed during the expansion phase in the new pallet warehouse.

All picked cartons run together on the packaging sorter. Commissions are checked if a deviation between actual and set weight of the package has been detected in the material flow. Corrected goods are protected in the cartons and transported to the carton lid & sealer.

The sorting of the dispatch tours to the 14 dispatch lines is done via the two dispatch sorters. Up to 5,990 cartons per hour are sorted here in order to be dispatched on the day of the incoming order. 9 dispatch lines are equipped with telescope belt conveyors which convey the cartons directly into the trucks.

TGW TECHNOLOGY EMPLOYED

The whole carton conveying and sorting technology of the Regional Distribution Center has been delivered by TGW Mechanics. There are 6.5 km conveying units with a speed of up to 2.3 m/s in action in the RDC. The challenge has been to cope with the many different cartons sizes and weights with high speed and highly sensitive goods.

In the sorting areas for packaging and dispatch three TGW Zip sorters have been used. These Shoe sorters are especially suitable for sorting different package sizes and guarantee extremely gentle handling of the goods, with the highest efficiency and performance.

Pop-up outputs for a gentle out-transfer of cartons on other conveying tracks. The cartons are directed into a curve movement by deflecting rollers and are not pushed or pulled.

In the commissioning area of large-volume articles Z-conveyors assure that all cartons get on the same level. These permanently running vertical conveyors are distinguished by TGW’s expected high performance.

For more information on the company please visit the IngramMicro website at www.ingrammicro.de.