Interdiscount and Microspot on Growth Course:
TGW Expands Swiss Logistics Hub
Interdiscount is the market leader for home electronics in Switzerland. The retailing expert, who is looking to substantially develop online business, is in the course of expanding its non-food range on Microspot.ch to 260,000 different products. To prepare Interdiscount’s intralogistics for these new challenges, TGW has built a fully automated distribution center at the company’s headquarters in Jegenstorf, Switzerland. After two and a half years of construction time, the grand opening ceremony for the new state-of-the art hub was held at the end of May 2018.
With approximately 1,800 employees, Interdiscount has been a division of the Coop Group since 1996, selling electronic products online as well as in over 180 store locations. Microspot, which is part of Coop and, organizationally, also a part of Interdiscount, is an online platform which previously sold home electronics at floor price. Now, an increasing number of non-food items will be offered online as well. With the objective of expanding e-commerce and developing an integrated cross-channel solution, the company has recently invested 70 million Swiss francs in the construction of a new fully automated central warehouse.
Competent Partner, Few Interfaces
A happy Pierre Wenger, CEO of Interdiscount and Microspot, together with Harald Schröpf, CEO of the TGW Logistics Group, and Joos Sutter, chairman of the executive board at Coop, together with Daniel Hintermann, head of logistics, attended the commissioning of the logistics center. "We wanted a solution from a single source with a competent partner and with as few interfaces as possible. TGW seemed predestined for this task. It's impressive how professionally and smooth everything worked out," said a very satisfied Pierre Wenger.
The existing building was connected to the new building via a passage hall. The high rack serves as a supply warehouse for the shuttle warehouse in the new 22,000 m² building. A combination conveying system will handle fast and efficient transportation of the roller containers and euro pallets.
An Energy-efficient Shuttle Warehouse
The shuttle warehouse with its six 80-meters aisles, 126 Stingray shuttles, and 65,700 rack spaces is at the core of the new building. Storage and retrieval units operate at very high speeds, allowing for up to 4,200 container movements per hour. In braking, energy is regained and fed back into the system. Individual areas such as incoming, high rack, picking, and shipping are connected by more than three kilometers of conveyors. Energy consumption for KingDrive®-Technology is reduced by up to 30 percent as compared to conventional systems.
One of the Most Modern Distribution Centers of Its Kind
Six TGW PickCenters guarantee top performance at compact space. Thanks to goods-to-person order fulfillment as well as 1:1 assignment (one source, one target), picking errors are almost impossible. Upstream sequencing offers flexibility in changing order structures.
"With this project, TGW has proven its extraordinary competence as system integrator. From the mechatronic components to the control systems and the software – everything came from one single source", TGW representatives Ewald Berger and Thomas Kretz emphasize. TGW, the Austrian intralogistics experts, also delivered a warehouse control system (WCS) including the TGW Software Suite for material flow calculation, which makes the Interdiscount logistics center one of the most advanced of its kind.
