ERCO - THE LIGHT FACTORY

ERCO specialises in light engineering software and hardware for architectural lighting. „First and foremost we sell light, not luminaires“ – This approach which places the immaterial light ’software’ above the physical hardware of the luminaires has been the trademark of ERCO for many years. That is why the company calls itself: ERCO, the Light Factory.

ERCO has its headquarters in Lüdenscheid, a traditional industrial town in the heart of Germany. The majority of the more than 1000 employees works in the development, production, sales and administration departments and additional employees are working in the different offices and showrooms all over the world. The ERCO plant consists of price-winning industrial buildings, being a living expression of the corporate culture. Several thousand luminaires leave the company every day, heading for buildings on all continents, complying with the safety regulations of the respective countries of destination. The manufacturing and testing processes are subject to strict certified standards which ensure that the products will provide a long service life.

The main characteristic of ERCO’s production is flexibility: thanks to intelligent automation as well as excellently skilled and versatile employees the production can quickly respond to the customers’ requirements and needs. New technologies such as digital control logic or LED technology are applied in ERCO’s laboratories in order to develop adequate and marketable products.

ERCO P3, the automatic high bay warehouse for pallets in sectional glass construction represents the core element within the extensive logistics systems.

OBJECTIVES

The logistics solution focussed on developing an integrated logistics concept which provides all goods at the Lüdenscheid site, ensures fast access to the goods required for order-related supply of the production and offers capacity reserves in the warehouse.

SPECIFIC SOLUTION

About 7,000 pallet locations were installed which offer sufficient reserves. Each storage aisle is equipped with a stacker crane, which guarantees full performance in the storage and retrieval processes.

A big pallet buffer was installed directly at the order picking station in order to guarantee continuous pallet supplies with short picking cycles, particularly offering an advantage for order-related production supply with very small batch sizes. The orders are buffered in the pallet buffer in parallel. Both the empty pallet provision of the picking stations and the order activation are realised automatically. Automatic pallet identification makes manual scanning of the pallets at the picking station redundant. Furthermore the automatic identification point allows for fast and smooth information transfer.

INSTALLATION DESCRIPTION

• storage capacity for 7,000 Euro pallets
• performance: up to 180 storages and retrievals/h
• 6 automatic storage and retrieval machines
• 4 workplaces for withdrawal of partial quantities
• all pallets that are delivered in a defective condition are conveyed on a system pallet in order to guarantee maximum availability
• automatic connection of order pallets (empty pallets) to the picking workplaces
• conveyor system connection to production in P1 for the transportation of pallets from or to the high bay warehouse
• conveyor system connection between the 3 levels in the pre-storage area (P1 connection, order picking, dispatch/delivery) via vertical conveyors
  
  

INTEGRATION OF CI_LOG WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM INTO SAP

The efficient CI_LOG Warehouse Management System including material flow control was integrated into the existing SAP system. The entire inventory management, storing position management, machine coordination, production activity control and activation of the control system components based on SIMATIC S7 are done in CI_LOG. SAP assumes all tasks related to higher-level inventory management and material resource planning.

ADVANTAGES FOR ERCO

• Fast access to the stored goods ensures prompt supply availability for internal and external customers.
• The solution could optimally be integrated into the ERCO production system.
• Thanks to the high stock reliability the inventory time and effort could be reduced by 98%.
• Order fluctuations can easily be handled by means of high capacity reserves in the warehouse.
• Order picking and replenishment are provided for the finished goods warehouse.
• The system allows for order-related picking and Kanban replenishment for production.
• Cost-neutral external warehousing due to a logistics provider