ZF Foton awarded SSI SCHAEFER the contract to automate a new area of their warehouse in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China. Scope of supply and services is a miniload with storage and retrieval machines, a modern bin conveying system, and a logistics software WCS system. The warehouse has improved its working capacities, optimized storage volumes and increased picking efficiency.
ZF is a global leader in driveline and chassis technology as well as active and passive safety technology. The company has a global workforce of 146,000 with approximately 230 locations in some 40 countries. At the end of 2016, ZF China entered into two joint ventures with Foton, a Chinese commercial vehicle manufacturer, to produce and sell commercial vehicle transmissions. The partners have now opened a production plant in Jiaxing in 2019. They focus primarily on the production of automated transmissions for heavy and light commercial vehicles and required a modern semi-automated system to meet the need of their in-plant production line. To increase the storage capacity, reduce manual labour work and lower the picking error rates using the existing space in the warehouse, 4-aisles of SSI Miniload and 19-aisles VNA racks have been equipped in the warehouse to optimize the storage volume and improve picking efficiency. The project is intended to increase the degree of automation in the warehouse and to increase process efficiency and performance.
For this purpose, SSI SCHAEFER designed two areas of storage systems, the SSI Miniload for the storage of small part components and the VNA for the storage of larger components. The pallets are transported to the VNA storage area automatically by 12 VNA forklift trucks which are operated by the logistics software SAP. Then it goes to the existing production line. Or the full pallet will be transported to the depalletizing robot system. After decanting, the bins are moved onto the bin conveying system to the SSI Miniload with 56,400 bin storage locations for storage. 4 Schaefer Miniload Cranes with a turnover performance of 430 bins per hour take care of storage and retrieval. After receiving the instruction from SAP, bins will be transported to the picking area. The system is perfected by the powerful logistics software WAMAS® by SSI SCHAEFER to control and monitor warehouse operations.