Automated centrepiece: Jungheinrich builds new high-bay warehouse for V-Zug

Premium for premium: V-Zug, the Swiss manufacturer of innovative household appliances, is making its 61,683 square metre industrial site in Zug fit for the future. As part of this redesign, the Swiss market leader relies on intralogistics expert Jungheinrich. In August, V-Zug awarded the Hamburg-based company the contract to integrate an automated, two-aisle high-bay warehouse into a new production building under construction, which is expected to go into operation at the end of 2023.

"The construction site logistics for this project are exceptional and challenging," reports Pascal Martin, Head of Projects Logistics Systems at Jungheinrich Switzerland. "While the building is being constructed, we are already installing part of the racking and the stacker cranes. Then the new production facility will continue to be built above the high-bay warehouse on the upper floors."

The 48 metre long, 15 metre wide and 19.5 metre high storage system will thus become the central heart of the new building. As a "decoupling inventory warehouse", it will temporarily store delivered semi-finished products from the press on around 3,800 storage spaces and distribute them as needed to the assembly area, which extends from the basement to the fourth floor. In addition, the warehouse is connected to a cleaning station, a laser punching system, small parts production and the "ZugGate". The warehouse also returns empty containers from assembly and makes them available for filling from the press. Manual transports or goods lifts are no longer necessary thanks to this solution.

In addition to the racking, Jungheinrich is supplying two stacker cranes, the conveyor and control technology and the WMS (Warehouse Management System) as part of the project. The entire administration is handled via an interface to V-Zug's ERP. "Thanks to the high performance of the stacker cranes and thanks to the efficient use of several storage and retrieval points of the high-bay warehouse on all levels, up to 90 double cycles per hour including vertical transports can be achieved," Martin calculates.

As part of its nationwide customer service, Jungheinrich also provides V-Zug with speed: More than 130 technicians are on duty in Switzerland, about 20 of them specifically trained for automation systems. If needed, an expert can be on site at V-Zug within two hours. "That convinced us, because continuous availability is crucial for us," says Paul Cathomas, project manager at V-Zug, citing a key argument in favour of Jungheinrich. The high-bay warehouse in Zug operates 220 days a year, and all operations are also designed for continuous operation.

V-Zug has been using industrial trucks from Jungheinrich for a long time, and now the first automation project has been realised together. Premium meets premium: this has proven itself in Switzerland.