The Kion Group, together with Dematic and Linde MH, has invested €90 million in an 85% automated spare parts warehouse in Kahl am Main, which, with 70,000 spare parts for 200 forklift series and as a hub for up to 2.8 million order items per year, is also a showcase project for the company.

Around one million Linde industrial trucks are currently in operation across Europe for internal transport tasks, said Andreas Krinninger, Kion's ITS EMEA CEO, at the opening of the impressive new building not far from Linde's headquarters in Aschaffenburg. "This requires high service quality and rapid availability."

Sparks fly - only at the opening

Around 2,000 suppliers will supply the group's largest spare parts warehouse in Europe, with its 22,000 square meters of space, which is expected to handle up to 7.8 million tons of material in the future. "We want to still have spare parts for our industrial trucks available in 12 years," says Krinninger, "and are increasing our response speed."

Christine Mezger-Behan, Head of Supply Chain Operations at the Kion Group, confirms that almost all parts ordered during the day by 5 p.m. can be picked, packed, and delivered the same day, arriving at the service technician and customer site the following day.

View of the HRL. Photos: klk.

Dematic CEO René Sickler, also present in person, assured that Linde Material Handling and Dematic have cooperated closely here. "We have integrated everything we have here" – lithium-ion forklifts, robots, and shuttle solutions in a demonstrative ideal of "Integrated Solutions." A truly ingenious showcase of hardware and software, combined in a showpiece in-house.

Impressive impression

Even from the outside, the 30-meter-high high-bay warehouse with six aisles and a high-performance multi-shuttle system for approximately 110,000 storage spaces makes an impressive impression. Markus Kellermann, head of the distribution center, is pleased with its central location "right in the heart of Europe." The mayor of Kahl am Main confirms that, in addition to creating jobs and despite being located next to a campsite (whose operator is also present...), the considerable dimensions have been successfully integrated into the surroundings, and the view of the warehouse complex is "particularly good."

Ramp-up phase

The material flow concept combines permanently installed, fully automated systems from sister company Dematic with mobile autonomous robots (AMRs), which ensure that central transport axes remain clear and can also be used by manual industrial trucks and people. Around two years after the groundbreaking ceremony in February 2023, the first pallets can be stored in the new distribution center, and the small parts warehouse is being gradually filled.

A small press group was able to see for themselves the spacious layout of the halls during a tour of the facility, which reportedly has the potential to be expanded by a further 45 percent. In the new "RDC CE," incoming and outgoing goods are handled via a total of 16 truck ramps.

The leadership in action

The distribution takes place directly behind the goods receiving area: Small parts are packed into crates and transported via continuous conveyors to the connected multi-shuttle. It has five 100-meter-long aisles and runs the entire length of the building. Full pallets and wire mesh crates are transported via conveyor systems, automatic multi-level conveyors, and a revolving electric floor conveyor (EBB) with 20 transport carts to the fully automated high-bay warehouse with its automated storage and retrieval machines (AS/RS).

Rapid delivery

The picking and packing of small parts orders takes place directly beneath the Multishuttle, while the order-specific assembly of goods stored in the high-bay racks takes place at packing stations along the EBB. All processed orders are then transported via continuous conveyors and lifting systems to the shipping area, where they are bundled according to order.

When picking

The shipping area with outgoing goods is located in a separate hall. The special warehouse for particularly large or heavy spare parts is also located there. These are transported by manual industrial trucks from the receiving area directly to the transfer points in front of the 21-meter-high, nine-aisle narrow-aisle high-bay warehouse. There, semi-automatic combination vehicles (Linde K) handle the goods carriers.

The "RDC CE" supplies the Linde sales network in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Ireland – upon request, ordered components can be delivered overnight directly to the service technicians' vehicles. In addition, the regional distribution centers in the Czech Republic, Spain, and Sweden, as well as local locations in Italy, France, and the UK, receive parts from this optimally connected distribution center.

Preserving lean grassland...

Sustainability was also a priority in Kahl. Site manager Kellermann points out that the construction was largely carried out on areas already sealed by previous uses. Ecologically valuable sand and lean grassland areas were relocated and supplemented by additional compensatory measures for nature and species conservation. At the same time, the requirements of the Gold Standard of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) were met: A PV system on the roof generates electricity and, in combination with a heat pump, heats the halls; rainwater is used as domestic water; and roof water is channeled into the nearby lake rather than the sewer system.

www.linde-mh.de

www.kiongroup.com

www.dematic.com