The automatic returns warehouse at Hermes Fulfilment in Haldensleben received honours from VDI, the Association of German Engineers, at the 22nd German Material Flow Congress in Garching (near Munich). The goods-to-person system is a 30 aisle OSR ShuttleTM with 175,000 storage locations for mixed goods. The OSR ShuttleTM can accept and store 2000 newly arriving mixed returns containers per hour coming direct from goods-in.
The KNAPP solution was convincing not only due to the high degree of automation but also because of the OSR ShuttleTM maintenance concept. Each of the total 840 shuttles can be replaced within ten minutes. Every day during on-going operation three to five shuttles are taken for maintenance. Every device is brought up-to-date once a year – without stopping the warehouse.