Construction land is now a valuable asset even in industrial areas . When expanding its production by adding a basement hall, Swiss window manufacturer Baumgartner , literally deepened its cooperation with the warehouse specialist Fehr. The new high bay warehouse was built beneath the production areas in the basement to save space. Baumgartner Fenster operates one of the most modern window productions in Europe in Hagendorn, in the Swiss canton of Zug. The focus is on high-quality wood and wood-aluminum windows that convince the planners and builders "measurably better". The family business was founded in 1825 as a small carpentry shop. Over six generations, the Baumgartner family repeatedly demonstrated their entrepreneurial and technical pioneering spirit. The new production hall with its space-saving storage concept would also be a lighthouse project – if the high-bay warehouse had not been built in the basement.
High-bay warehouse being built in the basement.
For G. Baumgartner AG, the Swiss warehouse specialist was rather the first point of contact when it came to warehouse technology, the new production hall to be built at the company's Hagendorn site in Cham. After all, two storage systems from Fehr had been in use on the site for many years, and the management is fully convinced of the efficiency and reliability of the plants. In analyzing the requirements for future logistics and the space available in the newly created production hall, the commissioning parties developed the groundbreaking concept together with the specialists from Fehr. In order to create as much space for production as possible on the ground floor of the hall, it was decided to build a basement for the high-bay warehouse and part of the production. The warehouse in the basement impresses not only with the dimensions of eleven meters high, 23 meters wide and 45 meters long. The planners of Fehr designed a "Fehr honeycomb" for long goods for the constantly needed aluminum profiles of the window manufacturer with a storage capacity of 1,215 parking spaces and a payload of 1,500 kilograms per cassette. The two-block stand-alone shelf system is fully automated and operated by a "Fehr double-table shelf control unit RBG1 light". The facility also consists of three carousels, with two four parking spaces and one six parking spaces. Four longitudinal conveyors, three weighing devices and a commissioning tower together with a telescope and excavating device complete the "Fehr honeycomb" system, which belongs to the group of honeycomb warehouses, for operation at Baumgartner Fenster. The complete supplier Fehr also supplied the electrical control, the safety device and with "Fehr WMS" also the suitable warehouse management system. Thanks to the tailor-made adaptation of the safety device, Fehr was able to save even more space for the client and decisively shorten the working distances.
Custom Security Zone Saves Space
There is also a small part of production in the basement. If employees are located near the work tables on the warehouse, the storage system automatically reduces the speed for safety reasons. As soon as the employee moves away and additionally actuates a safety switch, the storage system picks up its full speed. This adaptation of the safety technology made it possible to significantly reduce the space required for the safety zone and the resulting working paths. Starting from a very high level, no other storage system offers more capacity with such a small space requirement. The honeycomb racking warehouse is ideally suited for large quantities of rod and sheet material – especially when high access speeds are required. Even with different cassette masses, the honeycomb warehouse uses the available space optimally thanks to the minimum starting mass.
Honeycomb warehouse and tower warehouse combined
However, the honeycomb warehouse for the aluminum profile long stock is only part of the sophisticated storage solution. In order to bring the delivered material into the basement for storage as space-saving and efficient as possible, Fehr combined the "honeycomb" system with an additional tower warehouse, which is also located in the basement. A freestanding "Fehr multi tower" with 19 cassettes – payload 1,500 kilograms each – was connected to the "honeycomb" high-bay honeycomb warehouse. The multi tower rises to the ground floor and is stocked here with the incoming deliveries directly from the trucks. The 19 cassettes serve as intermediate buffers for the incoming deliveries until the shelf operating device of the high-bay warehouse finds time between the prioritized orders from production to start the transfer of the delivery from the cassettes of the "Fehr multi tower" into the "Fehr honeycomb". The warehouse management system "Fehr WMS" also knows about the company's upstream ERP system when the next truck deliveries are to be expected.
" The cooperation with the specialists from Fehr was very professional and in partnership in all project phases.
Thomas Baumgartner, Honorary President Member of the Board of Directors of G. Baumgartner AG.
Access light grids protect the carousel of the goods entry or delivery location. Two high-speed gates close the high-bay warehouse.
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Delivery and assembly as a challenge
The entire plant was planned, delivered and assembled from a single source by Fehr Lagerlogistik AG, which has its headquarters in Winterthur in Switzerland. Like most customers, Baumgartner Fenster commissioned the Swiss warehouse logistics specialist with the process analysis, planning, delivery, assembly and commissioning, as well as project management and programming of the "Fehr WMS". In order to ensure the seamless integration of the storage system into the production processes from the start, Fehr also took over the training of the customer team on the new storage facility and the evaluation of the previously defined performance parameters of the new storage logistics. As with any order, the realization of a new storage system is its complex task. The project manager Markus Scherrer must admit, however, that he has already made a lot of things possible in his long career at Fehr, but he actually saw and built a high-bay warehouse in the basement for the first time at Baumgartner.
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Necessary courage to break new ground
In addition to the necessary courage to take new paths in the layout of the plant, the greatest challenge was the introduction of the parts into the hall in the basement. All parts of the plant had to be brought down through a temporary ceiling opening into the plane below the production areas. After the assembly of the warehouse, this ceiling opening was again closed with concrete slabs. Thanks to the forward-looking warehouse logistics of Fehr in the basement, G. Baumgartner AG can once again consolidate and expand its position as one of the most modern window manufacturers in Europe. In this case, even on a smaller footprint than usual, because the client and the contracted warehouse specialist together found a solution that was as profound as it was future-oriented. "The specialists at Fehr have once again designed and delivered the perfect warehouse for our requirements," says Thomas Baumgartner, Honorary President and Member of the Board of Directors of G. Baumgartner AG. "The cooperation was very professional and in partnership in all project phases."