Two Materials Handling Giants Cooperate on New Warehouse Development

GERMANY – Two of the biggest names in the realm of materials handling are cooperating to outfit a new central spare parts warehouse in central southern Germany. Jungheinrich, best known for its fork lift range, is providing crane and mechanical plant maker Liebherr's subsidiary Liebherr-Werke Ehingen GmbH with all the requirements for the facility.

At the heart of the logistics solution, which Jungheinrich is delivering as a single provider, is an automated six-aisle high-bay warehouse (HBW) for pallets in a rack-supported structure with 18,000 rack storage locations, including in the roof and wall panelling. In addition, it has a two-aisle, three-fold-deep automated mini-load shuttle warehouse (MSW) with rack storage locations for a total of 40,000 containers.

These two warehouse types will ensure the maximum utilisation of space for Liebherr’s distribution of spare parts while, at the same time, improving handling performance. By putting the warehouse into operation, the company wants to set new standards with regard to quality, functionality and safety and ensure the consistently high availability of its machinery around the world.

The product range of the Liebherr plant in Ehingen includes state-of-the-art telescopic and lattice boom cranes of different sizes, both mobile and on continuous tracks, the scope spans from all-terrain mobile cranes of 35 tonnes to gigantic crawler cranes with load capacities of 3,000 tonnes. Jungheinrich project manager Robert Schad, commented:

”The logistics solution that we have developed for Liebherr stands out in particular due to its high flexibility. It can be expanded without difficulty and is therefore already equipped for the future growth of spare parts operations. Here, Jungheinrich is the sole source for planning, project design and construction.”

In addition to the HBW and MSW racking systems and the latest conveyor systems for containers and pallets, including control units and visualisation, the solution also includes six stacker cranes for pallets from the Jungheinrich subsidiary MIAS. Each of these is outfitted with dual load handling equipment to ensure the fast pace of the stacking and picking of Liebherr spare parts in thoroughly automated processes, as well as smooth operations around the clock. Steve Richmond, Director of Logistics Systems at Jungheinrich added:

“As the single provider working with Liebherr to deliver a complete intralogistics solution, Jungheinrich has been able to fully meet its needs, maximising both capacity and operational efficiency. The solution has the right level of flexibility needed to not only strengthen the worldwide distribution of spare parts, but adapt to changes in the future, especially important in the case of future unprecedented times. We look forward to continuing our work with Liebherr and supporting its growth as a key player in the market.”