Danish Delicacies Picked to Order

In the eastern part of the country, near a small medieval port town, stands the Danish central warehouse of a major retail company. But the atmosphere there is by no means tranquil, let alone outdated. In 2018, the company decided to expand its existing distribution center with an automated high-bay warehouse and an integrated Automated Case Picking (ACP) system. This high-performance, state-of-the-art order-picking system helps employees assemble pallets with precise fit and in the correct sequence for each individual store. TUP, the intralogistics software experts based in Stutensee near Karlsruhe, became part of this ambitious project five and a half years ago and was responsible for providing IT support for the processes within the warehouse. This proved to be a challenge—not least due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020. A project report.

In early 2018, the group’s general contractor approached TUP and presented the project in Denmark. At that point, the requirements specification phase had long since been completed, and TUP’s decision-makers had to decide whether to join a fully defined project—with no room for their own ideas and suggestions. This is because, in this specific area of logistics, successfully joining an already ongoing project is considered a major challenge. Hardly any of the competitors would do such a thing. But thanks to the flexibility and adaptability of the TUP software, the request from the far north was given the green light in Stutensee. Upon joining the project, TUP took on the integration of a warehouse-distributed-service concept based on TUP.WMS (Warehouse Management System) and, with it, the software-based coordination of all systems used in the warehouse.

The Danish distribution center, which is used not least for food products, is characterized by a wide variety of intralogistics solutions. Innovative conveyor technology and software from various manufacturers link manual and automated processes. To achieve the project’s goal, the general contractor also installed several new modules in the existing warehouse.

At the heart of the system is a three-dimensional full-roaming shuttle warehouse, called “Adapto,” which was integrated into the existing facilities. The shuttle warehouse is 11 meters high, has approximately 35,000 storage bins, and is equipped with 76 shuttles that can move fully automatically and independently of one another on every rack level. This minimizes the need for complex conveyor systems as well as so-called sequencing buffers and buffer sections.

In addition, a manual depalletizing station has been supplemented with an automated slot. A robot is now used there to automatically break down pallets and then feed them into the warehouse layer by layer (Automated Case Picking, ACP). Using volume measurement devices, it detects the edges, circumference, gripping points, and weight of the pallet. Once trained, the robot can handle around 800 picks per hour.

The Warehouse Management System (TUP.WMS) developed by TUP serves as the central interface within the warehouse. What was particularly interesting about this project was the wide variety of interfaces resulting from the many different modules that needed to be integrated—especially with the full-roaming shuttle warehouse. Managing this diversity with as little effort as possible was the central challenge of the project.

As part of the project, the TUP.WMS solution now connects the ACP, the SAP EWM system that controls the rest of the warehouse, and the data warehouse, where all transactions are stored. The TUP.WMS sits at the center of all these modules, like a data spider connecting all the other elements: It receives orders for individual stores from the EWM system and must ensure that sufficient replenishment is requested from the high-bay warehouse and unpalletized. To do this, it is important that there is sufficient inventory in the warehouse, which the system also manages. The system also determines the sequence of trays for the store pallets.

While the COVID-19 pandemic—which began in early 2020 and increasingly came to dominate everyone’s lives—forced the entire world to find new ways of collaborating and communicating digitally, the project team was already one step ahead. Of course, some things are easier when many or all of the participants are on-site. The subsequent online implementation of a large portion of the tasks meant extra work for everyone to ensure that it would ultimately function properly and that the gain in flexibility would not lead to disadvantages elsewhere. However, since TUP had already been moving toward more remote work even before the pandemic, the team was well-coordinated even in virtual meetings. As a result, the project in Denmark remained on schedule despite the global pandemic.

Toward the end of the commissioning phase in the first year of the pandemic, however, things got tense once again. Since the EWM system—which controls key processes in the distribution center—was not available from the start, TUP had to develop a simulator that precisely mimicked the system’s functions, true to the motto “software follows function.” Using the EWM and MFS simulators, the functionality of all other components and their interaction was tested prior to commissioning. This approach corresponds to a simplified version of a “digital twin” that simulates only the necessary elements. A meticulously designed interface was created to connect with the EWM and the client’s material flow computer, which in turn also had interfaces to the EWM. In this context, the simulator enabled efficient, risk-free, and streamlined mass testing.

The ramp-up of the ACP system began in the fall of 2020. The goal at that time was for the Danish central warehouse to fully supply the group’s 68 branches in the country. To achieve this, TUP created a customized version of the TUP.WMS to create the central data hub through which all components are integrated and all ACP logistics processes—from goods receipt and replenishment to order fulfillment—are covered. Additionally, the system communicates with numerous interface partners, such as the EWM system, material flow computers, and big data and media servers. In this complex environment, the strength of TUP’s “Software follows function” principle became evident: Interfaces and customized solutions, such as the EWM and MFS simulators, were developed specifically for each stage of the process chain to ensure the project’s success, which has been evident in day-to-day logistics operations for more than four years.