Jungheinrich has automated the high-bay warehouse of global automotive supplier ZF in Schweinfurt, paving the way for an entirely automated material flow from storage to production supply. The intralogistics experts from Hamburg provided an integrated solution from a single source, which has now been achieved. The initial position in ZF's high-bay warehouse in Schweinfurt included 985 rack storage areas for large plastic load carriers, pallet cages and Euro pallets. These were distributed over five aisles that were 6.25 m high and 17.7 m long. Production elements earlier came into the warehouse through a security door system and were deposited there manually. To automate this process completely, covering narrow-aisle storage, racking and transport from the security door to the warehouse, Jungheinrich delivered the racking system with area access control and the conveyor systems. The boxes and pallets, in the future, would pass via a triple control along with the conveyor system: clearance, weight and contour controls. After the barcode is read automatically, they are transported to the high-bay warehouse through roller conveyors on two sides. Jungheinrich's driverless and automated version of the standard EKX narrow-aisle truck, an EKX 516 ka, takes over there. It delivers the loading units to their exact locations in the ZF warehouse - around the clock. Rails along the racking on the aisles transport the EKX 516ka with electricity. It has an onboard battery charger. Information about stacking and picking takes place directly and without manual scanning from the forklift to the warehouse management system, which results in even greater productivity. Jungheinrich also provided ZF in Schweinfurt with a Warehouse Control System (WCS) highlighting an integrated material flow calculator. As per the project lead at ZF, Dominik Hüllmantel, and team lead of intralogistics at ZF, Andre Hofmann, one of the principal reasons they chose Jungheinrich was exactly this all-inclusive package. The EKX 516ka-operated rack warehouse is an effective solution for them, given the complexity of their methods and the limited space availability. Image SourceAlso read: Sany becomes world’s largest excavator seller in 2020 Also read: Hyundai launches three special attachments with the launch of HX380L