Geek+ and Körber accelerate e-commerce warehouse operations at Hawesko Group

DUSSELDORF, Germany, July 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Geekplus, the global leader in mobile robot and smart logistics solutions, has collaborated with Körber to deploy more than 20 autonomous mobile robots for the wine distributor Hawesko Group. The project brings warehouse automation to the company's Tornech, Germany, facility, where in-house logistics service provider IWL handles 20 million bottles of wine and champagne annually.

With this new implementation, Geekplus robots now operate 330 shelves across an expanded 6,000-square-meter area.

"Geekplus is proud to continue our longstanding partnership with Körber, which has now grown to more than 3,000 robots deployed in eleven countries," said Geekplus' Simon Houghton. "We work together to create unique solutions for customers like the Hawesko Group, helping them solve the challenges they currently face while enabling them to easily scale up their level of automation to meet future demands."

Through the integrated interaction of modern software and automation, the Hawesko Group has increased warehouse performance by 50 percent. Behind the scenes, all operational warehouse processes converge on Körber's digital logistics platform. The WMS acts as an operational hub, while the subdivided Unified Control System (UCS) optimizes the control of the automated technology portfolio and creates extended communication interfaces to the robotics application. Because of this, pick performance in the expanded area has more than doubled.

"Given the growth in online retail, the importance of efficient processes to support e-commerce fulfillment has increased significantly. High-performing and resource-efficient solutions are required to address increasing customer demands and seasonal fluctuations," said Michael Brandl, Executive Vice President Software EMEA at Körber Business Area Supply Chain. "The new solution accomplished this for the Hawesko Group through an integrated combination of WMS, AMR technology and UCS."

Mobile order fulfillment robots have consistently proven themselves in the logistics services segment. By using any of Geekplus' suite of Goods-to-Person solutions, companies find their storage space can be used up to 30 percentmore effectively. Additional robots can be integrated without any interruptions to operations.

"Compared to the use of conventional automation solutions, the expansion in Tornesch proved to be the most economically effective solution, creating not only additional storage capacity but also the necessary freedom for future expansion," explained Frederick Paulsen, Project Manager Information Logistics at IWL. "Capacities for up to 100 additional racks, which corresponds to approximately 40,000 additional article items, are possible in the future in the existing space."

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