News | Arvato Group | Harsewinkel, 01/24/2020

Driverless transport system implemented at Harsewinkel location

Arvato Supply Chain Solutions continues to advance the automation of its locations. Recently, a driverless transport system (DTS) has been introduced to handle all floor-level pallet transport jobs for the healthcare sector at the Harsewinkel distribution center. The system includes six automated industrial trucks from Jungheinrich that can move around the space freely and deliver around 400 pallets a day to their destinations.

Among other things, Arvato uses its Harsewinkel location to deliver logistics services for customers in the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries, with 31,000 square meters available for this purpose at the site. To cope with the increasing volume of internal pallet transport tasks while also countering the shortage of skilled labor, the site has invested in six driverless transport trucks developed by the specialist Jungheinrich. For this purpose, around 300 reflectors were installed on the walls and shelves along the transport routes in the summer of 2019. These serve as navigation points for the vehicles and are recognized by a laser scanner on the vehicles. This enables the driverless transport vehicle (DTV) to navigate with an accuracy of up to two millimeters using triangulation.During the implementation phase, a new conveyor technology control system was installed, floor markings were applied in accordance with 5S standards, and turning stations and buffer racks were set up on the central travel track to automatically buffer pallets and map out longitudinal and transverse transport operations. The new technology is rounded off by system interfaces with the warehouse management software and the conveyor technology control system, plus new DTS-specific scanning dialogs. Employees working in Goods Receipt, Outgoing Goods, and Internal Transport were informed about the concept and the corresponding rules of conduct at the beginning of the year. The six vehicles, named after famous superheroes, drive to all the site’s warehouses, Goods Receipt and Outgoing Goods, and also stop at the disposal area to empty the waste containers.