Publishing house MairDumont chooses Pick by Light for order picking in its logistics centre based in Ulm. The system installed in 1995 is being gradually upgraded – KBS takes over from the previous vendor with its highly flexible solution.
Hans-Peter Häußinger is a man with foresight. Almost 20 years ago, when MairDumont’s head of logistics planned the Ulm-based logistics centre of his current employer, he made the right decisions. Back in 1992, he had already opted for a pick-by-light order picking system. “This made us one of the trend setters in the publishing sector”, stated Hans-Peter Häußlinger. MairDumont gradually equipped the meanwhile around 7,400 compartments in a total of 75 picking zones with illuminated displays. The year 1999 saw the last stage of expanding the 11,000 square meter building, with Pick by Light fulfilling all expectations. “The system is self-explanatory, which means that new employees can get to grips with it very quickly and achieve zero error order picking right away”, said Hans-Peter Häußlinger, touching on one of the main advantages.
Working in parallel instead of sequentially
Another advantage of the system is its high level of productivity. “We manage up to 3,500 orders averaging 20,000 picks a day here”, explained technical manager Andreas Bachmaier, adding that: “No other system would give us this performance”. Hans-Peter Häußinger compared it with the pick-by-voice solution: “In contrast to Pick by Voice, we can process orders in parallel instead of sequentially.” Working in parallel means that the all compartments belonging to the individual orders are displayed in one go for the employees in their respective picking zones. “This allows operators to choose the sequence of picking themselves”, reported Andreas Bachmaier. In practice, he was able to prove that the pick performance was almost three times higher than with sequential approaches. With sequential solutions, the system determines the picking sequence, with only one lamp lighting up at a time – when using pick by light, logistics managers are able to choose between parallel and sequential approaches. “Pick by Voice, however, would have forced us to use less effective sequential picking”, explained Hans-Peter Häußinger.
Apart from the fundamental advantages of pick-by-light systems, there are great differences between the vendors operating in the market. For instance, only eight years after the last picking zone went live, MairDumont was informed by the vendor that the supply of replacement parts for the 3,500 display components could no longer be guaranteed “in the foreseeable future”. This announcement forced the publisher to look for a new solution. “Naturally, this caused great annoyance”, recalled Andreas Bachmaier. Although switching suppliers looked risky at first, MairDumont’s choice fell on Freiburg-based KBS Industrieelektronik GmbH after a thorough selection process. “KBS offered us a very fair price, as well as the most logical and focused concept for updating our system”, commented Hans-Peter Häußinger. The challenge consisted in switching the systems just one week, as planning in downtime during normal working hours “was out of the question” according to Andreas Bachmaier, who added: “I am glad that KBS took on this difficult task.”
Seamless transition
The first stage involved KBS building test facilities in Ulm with 152 picking compartments. This shelving was used to test the interfaces to the warehouse management system and control functions while allowing daily business to run as usual. “We were able to conclude the test phase after two weeks and start on the technical preparations for the switch”, said Andreas Bachmaier.
Under the plan, the first 24 of 75 picking zones with around 1,800 displays were converted to the KBS system in December 2010. The rails were made ready in the company’s own fitting shop to take the displays with the eye-catching lamps which were simply snapped on to them. “The switch was functioning smoothly within the space of a weekend. The following Monday our operators tried the new solution out and immediately found their feet,” affirmed Andreas Bachmaier. Operating the new and the old system was “virtually identical”, enabling employees to be deployed in all picking zones, as before. The other picking zones were to be switched over during the course of the year. “Judging by the good experience so far, this step should not cause any problems”, predicted Andreas Bachmaier.
“A key advantage of the KBS solution lies in its simple installation compared with the system we had before”, said Hans-Peter Häußinger. “Whereas the old displays had to be screwed on and connected by cables, the KBS solution makes exchanging the pick-by-light modules very easy through the “snap-in adaptation”. The main advantage of this design is that, if required, the display components can be quickly removed and put somewhere else without the need for any tools. “In the past, we had to call on our previous supplier every time we wanted to change the warehouse layout”, commented Andreas Bachmaier. He and his team are now completely independent, which saves both time and money.
Red not the preferred choice
The “snap-in adaptation” is set to pay off very quickly in the future as MairDumont will be changing 25 percent of its product range in the next five years. “We will be adding considerably more illustrated books to our product range and will therefore be installing many new, particularly large compartments”, said Hans-Peter Häußinger. Alongside greater flexibility, KBS also offers advantages in operating the system. “Confirming small quantities is much easier with the new displays than it used to be”, explained Andreas Bachmaier.
The lamps are also different compared with the old solution – with KBS, they can light up in seven different colours as opposed to only having a red light with the old system. This feature comes into its own when several employees are working on various orders in the same picking zone, as each order can be assigned its own colour. MairDumont did not need this distinction. The Swabian publishing house nonetheless used the variety of colours on offer and let its employees choose their own colour. The consensus of opinion was clear: “Red got no votes. Our 40 operators opted for green”, concluded Hans-Peter Häußinger.