Cost reduction and increased efficiency are hot topics. Competitive pressure is increasing on the world market. This means that small to medium-sized companies, in particular, are frequently forced to transfer jobs abroad. Companies that can reduce their costs and at the same time improve their services and quality are the only ones able to buck this trend. The key to this lies in logistics.

More efficiency = more customer benefits
Starting in September 2009, the new Power Pick Global warehouse management software from Kardex was successfully introduced, tested and further developed at ZEITLAUF^® antriebstechnik, in cooperation with Kardex – the world’s first pilot project of its kind. The first phase of the project covered the motors and raw materials stores comprising around 1,700 articles to the value of around 850,000 EUR.

Due to the positive results, the plan is to include the four XP 500 Kardex Shuttles at the end of September 2010, thus converting the entire warehouse management structure over to the Power Pick Global system. The new inclusion of the Shuttle towers covers approximately 690 m² of storage space, each tower with 110 – 120 shelves, around 7,500 – 9,000 containers and around 3,000 stored articles to a total value of almost 750,000 Euro. The final phase of the project at ZEITLAUF^® antriebstechnik is to include the packing stores in the new Power Pick Global WMS by the end of 2010.

Equipped with the Power Pick Global logistics solution from KARDEX, the state-of-the-art automated stores at ZEITLAUF^® antriebstechnik now provides better performance and service at top quality standards and provides maximum availability at lowest possible warehousing costs. Since the introduction of the new warehouse management system, ZEITLAUF^® antriebstechnik has been able to further increase its productivity, lower its costs and achieve competitive advantages by means of the “goods to man” principle. The 25 million articles that go in and out of the Kardex central stores each year now entail considerably less associated picking time, goods ordered are more readily available and throughput times are shorter when it comes to downstream assembly.