Largest single investment in logistics:
new ultramodern warehouse to strengthen Lemvigh-Müller’s market position and prepare the company for the future

Lemvigh-Müller understands that the future calls for high standards from all parts of the business. Therefore, the company is now making its largest ever investment in warehouse solutions, centralizing warehouses from currently two in Odense and Kolding to one state-of-the-art warehouse in Kolding. This investment will ensure that Lemvigh-Müller can handle larger volumes of goods in the future and offer even more customer-tailored and environmentally friendly logistics services. The new solution also provides the ability to track product flow, warehouse performance, and capacity utilization, thereby providing even faster delivery to market.

Comprehensive End-to-End Warehouse

Lemvigh-Müller is the market leader in Denmark in steel and technical solutions, handling more than 60,000 items daily from the two warehouses in Odense and Kolding. As a wholesaler, the company delivers to a wide range of customers in sectors such as construction, industrial companies, public institutions, and electrical and plumbing companies. Lemvigh-Müller has chosen KNAPP as a partner for the project, KNAPP’s largest ever in Denmark. KNAPP’s role includes implementing extensive upgrades at the Kolding warehouse in technical automation solutions and software. “We are proud that Lemvigh-Müller has shown us the great trust required for a project of this size. The future calls for streamlined end-to-end logistics, and our experience with scaling this type of upgrade means we look forward to delivering a complete state-of-the-art warehouse solution,” explains Mikael Holmqvist, CEO of KNAPP Nordics.

Investing in Future Logistics

The project includes the construction of a 23-meter KNAPP Evo Shuttle with approximately 130,000 storage locations and 12 ergonomic Pick-it-Easy workstations. A 38-meter-high high-bay warehouse with space for 26,000 pallets will also be built, where pallet cranes with monorail easily handles large volumes of pallets. Other features contributing to making the warehouse fully automated include package handling machines, robot-controlled palletizing, and semi-automatic pallet-to-pallet picking with automatic pallet feeding from the pallet warehouse.

Additionally, Lemvigh-Müller prioritizes meeting the increasing demand for cables precisely cut to the correct length, which is why cable cutting machines are also being implemented, ensuring that Lemvigh-Müller can deliver cables on a large scale in the future. “Our warehouse in Kolding has been operational since 2003 and functions impeccably. To future-proof our logistics and warehouse management, we are now making the largest logistics investment in the company’s history, establishing a state-of-the-art logistics center in Kolding, which will ensure that we can continue to grow and deliver even faster to our many thousands of customers across the country and our 23 stores. We firmly believe that the new warehouse will future-proof the company and give us a significant advantage in the market with even better customer solutions,” explains Christian Søgaard Christensen, CEO of Lemvig-Müller.

The partnership between KNAPP and Lemvigh-Müller goes back 20 years, which Lemvigh-Müller sees as a strength in a project of this size. “When making large investments in very critical infrastructure, you need to be absolutely sure about the choice of supplier. Throughout our process, we have had the right gut feeling about KNAPP and the team we have worked with. High professionalism and understanding of our business and our needs, combined with good chemistry, have characterized the entire process – we are confident that we have made the right choice,” says Michael Lichtenberg Crone, Logistics and Production Director at Lemvigh-Müller.

Increasing Focus on Software Setup

As a significant part of the project, KNAPP, as certified SAP^® EWM partner, has helped tailor the logistics software setup for the Kolding warehouse. SAP^® Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) is being implemented on Lemvigh-Müller’s newly upgraded SAP S/4 HANA setup, providing a comprehensive end-to-end solution where SAP^® EWM functions as both the Warehouse Management System (WMS) and Warehouse Control System (WCS) for both the manual and automated parts of the warehouse, resulting in fewer interfaces and increased process optimization. KNAPP also uses an emulation system for quality assurance, allowing for visual tests at the warehouse before the project goes live. Overall, the new SAP EWM will ensure that Lemvigh-Müller achieves optimal utilization of all capacities in the new warehouse solution with a single automated and future-proof SAP^® system. This enables the warehouse to operate in a larger setup with automated processes from the moment an order is placed until goods are delivered.

Prepared for Future Expansions

The entire project is designed to be significantly expandable if necessary. All KNAPP deliveries in the new warehouse are modular and can therefore be further scaled up in the future as needed. This setup gives Lemvigh-Müller the ability to quickly initiate new growth projects, and the warehouse is already being prepared for future implementation of fully automatic picking with picking robots.

About KNAPP

KNAPP is the reliable technology partner for intelligent value chain management. Headquartered in Austria, the KNAPP Group provides all-in-one solutions for automation and digitalization, from production and distribution to the point of sale. Excellent service and long-term collaboration make KNAPP the strong partner behind the success of their customers in the sectors healthcare, retail and lifestyle, food retail, fashion, wholesale and manufacturing.

About Lemvigh-Müller

As Denmark’s largest steel and technology wholesaler, every day Lemvigh-Müller ensures that goods from thousands of manufacturers are collected, packed, and delivered to installers, industrial companies, utility companies, public institutions, and construction sites throughout Denmark.

For more information, please contact:

Kristin Näs, Marketing Manager at KNAPP Nordics, press.se@knapp.com

Maria Noel, Kommunikationschefin at Lemvigh-Müller, mano@lemu.dk