The Customer
At its Goldach, Switzerland, facility, stürmsfs AG processes and supplies a broad range of aluminum, carbon steel, and stainless steel products, including sheets and plates, as well as long products—such as bars, structural sections, tubes, and custom profiles—with lengths ranging from 2 to 7.5 meters.
Initial Situation
Previously, all materials were stored at floor level and handled using an overhead crane. Employees manually transported materials to the sawing lines, making material handling time-consuming, labor-intensive, and prone to errors while also increasing safety risks. The saws, supplied by different manufacturers, operated as standalone systems without centralized monitoring or control. Cutting times had to be coordinated manually, and material identification and inspection required significant manual effort.
Objectives
The primary objective was to implement fully automated material supply to the sawing lines, streamline material flow, increase throughput, and ensure consistently high product quality—all while minimizing downtime and maintaining uninterrupted production during the modernization.
State-of-the-Art Modernization and Automation
Today, stürmsfs operates three Fehr automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), all seamlessly integrated with the company’s central ERP system.
One system is a long-product storage system for the fully automated storage and buffering of aluminum plates. Another is a honeycomb storage system installed approximately seven years ago. At the end of 2022, a third, aging storage system from another supplier was partially replaced by a new Fehr long-product storage system.
As part of a comprehensive retrofit completed in just three weeks during the Christmas shutdown, Fehr replaced the existing stacker crane, upgraded all obsolete control components, and fully automated the system using state-of-the-art robotics. Careful project planning enabled production to continue until shortly before Christmas, and the modernized system was back in full operation by the second week of January.
The fact that we were able to modernize the entire system in just three weeks over the Christmas holidays—and thus maintain ongoing operations almost without interruption—is an impressive success for us.
Domingo Messerli, CEO and Delegate of the Board of Directors at stürmsfs.
The new bar stock storage system at stürmsfs has 3,800 storage locations, each of which can hold three tons.
High Performance & Capacity
The new system handles bars with diameters ranging from 12 to 110 mm and individual weights from 1 to 450 kg. Featuring 3,800 storage locations, each with a load capacity of up to 3 metric tons, the ASRS maximizes storage density while making optimal use of the available warehouse space.
Eight workstations support key processes, including order picking, material staging, and sawing, ensuring a continuous and efficient material flow. Two industrial robots equipped with custom-designed grippers automatically feed two sawing lines across three processing stations, enabling fully automated, high-precision operation.
The new system has completely transformed our workflows. From automatic storage to material retrieval to feeding the sawing lines—everything now runs efficiently and reliably, and the quality of our products remains consistently high.
Domingo Messerli, CEO and Delegate of the Board of Directors at stürmsfs.
Fehr has developed a system where robots feed multiple saws at the same time.
Fully Automated Process Thanks to fehr WMS
In addition to the hardware modernization, the modular Fehr Warehouse Management System (WMS) was implemented and seamlessly integrated with the customer’s ERP system and production processes.
The WMS centrally manages all sawing lines—including machines from different manufacturers—and stores machine-specific parameters such as cutting times. Customer orders are processed largely automatically via the robotic production line, with the ERP system coordinating the entire workflow from order entry and production planning to the delivery of finished parts.
The system also automates key logistics processes, including production scheduling, order picking, palletizing, and shipping preparation. In addition, real-time process simulation provides sales staff with up-to-date information on production progress and estimated order completion, enabling reliable delivery forecasts and improved customer service.
Efficient Planning with the “Opticut” Cutting Optimization Software
stürmsfs uses “Opticut,” an optional module of the Fehr WMS, to optimize cutting processes across multiple customer orders. The software analyzes order requirements and compares them with current inventory levels, including available offcuts. Based on this data, the system determines which residual materials can be reused and which can be classified as scrap.
By analyzing historical consumption and cutting data, Opticut intelligently combines suitable offcuts for future orders, maximizing material utilization and reducing waste. The entire process chain—from cutting optimization and material planning to the automated loading and unloading of the sawing lines—runs seamlessly and fully automatically. This creates the technical foundation for continuous, unattended 24/7 production.
The Fehr system also minimizes the risk of incorrect shipments through integrated weighing systems that verify each product before dispatch. This ensures that only materials meeting customer specifications are delivered. The automated interaction between material cassettes, the rack-feeding system, and robotic handling eliminates virtually all risk of material damage. There is no longer any risk of collisions with forklifts or trucks, or of materials being dropped during handling.
With just a mouse click, employees select the required material, and the system automatically retrieves and delivers the correct items. This high level of automation significantly reduces manual handling, improves workplace safety, and ensures consistent process quality.
Through automation, stürmsfs minimizes material damage, reduces operating costs over the long term, and increases overall efficiency—making the investment a sustainable foundation for future growth.
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