Packing robot connectivity with w3/max
Coldstore Hamm GmbH, which went into operation in 2003, is a multi-functional warehouse with a 24-hour service. The deep-freeze warehouse stores red meat, meat products and slaughter by-products as well as ice cream and bakery products for third parties. Thanks to a modern mobile racking system, the company has a capacity of around 17,000 individual pallet spaces, which are distributed over 13,000 sqm. The company's range of services also includes exporting and packaging in various types and sizes of packaging for various destination countries in the world.
The warehouse management system w3/max has already been used in a number of deep-freeze warehouses, for example at Coldstore in Hamm since 2004. As a software specialist for deep-freeze logistics, w3logistics offers special functionalities for the deep-freeze industry in addition to the basic functions of such a system for warehouse management.
This year, a new packing robot connection was added to the warehouse management system. The robots were integrated into the customer's existing processes in order to increase productivity and optimize quality assurance. With the help of the packing robot, provided cartons are taken over by the station and the barcodes are scanned. The packing robot sends a request to the WMS to confirm the carton ID with the corresponding article data. The robot receives the required article data of the goods from the WMS. The cartons are positioned on pallets in four possible packing positions. The robot packs the pallets according to a previously defined packing plan. If the packing process is considered completed, the pallet is conveyed to the automatic wrapper. The robot reports the packing of each carton, including the pallet packing position, and the completion of a packing process to the WMS.
"The packing robot connection offers us advantages with regard to a higher degree of automation and less susceptibility to errors. The new interface allows us a smooth palletizing and depalletizing process," says Holger Schäfer, managing director at Coldstore.