- A close collaborative partnership has bound the two companies since 1999.
- Thanks to a clever retrofit strategy and continuous expansions, Ganter now has a future-proof system at its disposal that reliably reflects increasing item variety and growing order volumes.
- Intelligent automation enables shorter delivery times, high performance and improved ergonomics.
Press Information
How Ganter and TGW Logistics have written an intralogistics success story over the course of nearly three decades
(Marchtrenk, Austria, August 25, 2026) The German standard parts specialist Ganter is systematically refining its highly automated intralogistics architecture to fulfill customers' requirements in terms of reliability and short delivery times. To this end, the family-owned company has been putting its trust in the expertise and experience of TGW Logistics for nearly three decades: what began with a tray warehouse in 1999 has developed into a strategic partnership over the years, based on trust and a shared understanding of sustainable growth.
Founded in 1894 as a small workshop in the Black Forest, Ganter is now run by the fourth generation of the family and enjoys international success as a standard parts specialist. As early as 1912, the company concentrated its products in a catalog, standardizing its selection. This Ganter standard (GN) serves as the basis for other manufacturers' standard parts to this day. The German family-owned company supplies customers in the machine engineering industry with more than 70,000 standard elements: from operation components to clamping elements to machine components.
Long-term investments in intralogistics
Ganter sees investments in intralogistics as the cornerstone of a resilient supply chain – and as the foundation for lasting success. The manual central warehouse at the company headquarters in Furtwangen, Germany has therefore been undergoing automation in stages since 1999 to keep up with ever-higher requirements regarding performance, flexibility and throughput. "We have very deliberately chosen brownfield construction over greenfield construction," emphasizes Ralf Beitlich, head of logistics at Ganter. "This decision has to do with the sustainable use of resources and the available space, but also with our close fellowship with the city of Furtwangen." Today, the logistics center quickly and reliably supplies B2B and B2C customers around the world with standard parts of the brands Ganter Griff and Elesa+Ganter.
Production supply and customer orders
It became clear very early while planning the automation that the entire system had to not only meet high expectations regarding performance but also adapt flexibly to changed conditions. The principal challenge: to both replenish production and fulfill customer orders from around the world quickly. With such divergent requirements, the ideal setup calls for one thing above all: interweaving processes in an intelligent manner.
"This is where the great benefit of the longstanding partnership between Ganter and TGW Logistics becomes apparent," affirms Markus Kammerhofer, Director of Sales Retro at TGW Logistics. “A comprehensive understanding of the processes, detailed plant know-how and lived service orientation have helped us to develop solutions together that are tailored to the customer's needs.”
"Our collaboration is characterized by mutual appreciation and working together on an equal footing – always in a friendly exchange and with a good sense of humor," affirms Ralf Beitlich. "TGW Logistics seeks an in-depth understanding of its customers' challenges and to work together with them to find the solution. Our collaboration does not end at go-live, but rather continues during live operation and service.
Intralogistics grows alongside the business requirements
Automation of the manual workflows kicked off in 1999 with a tray warehouse and goods-to-person workstations. Due to its growth – and the corresponding need for capacity expansion – Ganter put a three-aisle automated mini-load warehouse into operation in 2007 and had it expanded by a fourth aisle in 2011.
TGW Logistics erected a high-bay warehouse in 2014 to take care of replenishment, enabling the company to handle bulk amounts as well. Five years later, the automated mini-load warehouse and the picking area were expanded once again to include ergonomic PickCenter workstations, among other things. As part of this retrofit, the teams also updated the IT landscape to the current state of the art. In 2021, Ganter also commissioned TGW Logistics to carry out a comprehensive modernization of the existing storage and retrieval machines in the tray warehouse.
When it comes to support for the highly automated system, Ganter has recourse to a Lifetime Services contract that covers spare parts supply, remote services and experienced on-site specialists for maintenance support.
Latest shuttle technology
As part of the "Strategy 2030" initiative, Ganter is investing in another comprehensive update that will go live in stages starting in 2027. "While we do not have any seasonal goods, our selection of products and variants in different sizes and shapes is steadily growing: everything from small to large parts," says Ralf Beitlich. “Such variety renders expansion necessary if we want to be ideally positioned for the future.”
TGW Logistics' retrofit experts are erecting a shuttle system with roughly 80,000 storage locations as the high-performance core element of the installation. An individually movable robot handles fully automated depalletizing in goods receiving, ensuring replenishment for the shuttle and high-bay warehouses and ergonomically relieving the burden on the employees. The Warehouse Management System (WMS) is also being updated to the state of the art.
"The goal of the expansion is not only to significantly increase performance for optimal customer service, but also to provide better ergonomics for the employees in their daily workflows," according to Markus Kammerhofer. “Thus, we are taking the next step in our collaboration together – and that's something we're proud of!”
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