DŘEVO TRUST has launched a fully automated warehouse – with system integration from Aimtec

There were two main motivators behind this project for a new approach to internal logistics: DŘEVO TRUST’s desire to be able to prepare large amounts of materials for high-volume customers quickly, flawlessly, and damage-free, and its vision of advancing intralogistics processes to a level that would bear benefits for 5–10 years to come. It thus decided for the construction of a new hall in Lipník nad Bečvou, with its board storage section set up as a fully automated warehouse. Its branches in Hradec Králové and Pilsen will see similar solutions.

“As our product portfolio grew, we needed to increase our warehousing spaces. So we sought a solution that would let us better use our spaces. We utilised a stacker in automatic mode, and we also took an extra step and added vacuum lifters so as to make the majority of the process automated. We also had to solve the issue that no single supplier could provide us with the technologies, forcing us to arrange two suppliers – one for the racks and stackers, and another for the vacuum lifters and the handling of input/output materials. However, neither of those companies addressed automation logic. Because of this, we sought someone who could handle both WMS and automation. Aimtec was the most successful in this,” says DŘEVO TRUST, a.s. board member Libor Toman of the project.

Aimtec thus earned the role of system integrator for this project. Its task was to integrate all of the physical equipment into the control system and configure the warehousing logic. One unique aspect of the new automated warehouse at DŘEVO TRUST is that the hardware technologies used are being combined for the first time ever in the Czech Republic. “After the crew hands an item over for storage, the system sets a warehousing position based on several criteria and takes care of synchronising all the technologies; this includes controlling the alignment benches, stackers, trolleys, special vacuum manipulation equipment and more. It does all this because no damage to the boards during handling is allowed,” Jiří Žižka, the Aimtec consultant in charge of the project, adding: “During picking, the system checks that all items requested in the order are there at the warehouse, it gives the order to prepare the packaging materials and all other materials, and it then stores the requested materials at an interim location. At the moment of loading and shipping, the system begins transporting the shipping unit towards the handover point, where the crew can take it over via Pick by Light.”

A bespoke control system and a VR process simulator

The control system at DŘEVO TRUST’s fully automated warehouse was tailor-made for them alone. Put-away is performed based on a combination of several criteria, including an ABC storage strategy and balanced distribution into multiple zones in case one of the cranes is damaged. The system also incorporates a randomness coefficient, and contour and height checks are naturally included. But the technologies used (for stacking, vacuum handling, board alignment and more) were unique as well, placing Aimtec before the question of how to set up communication between the system and the hardware as quickly as possible while still covering every situation and every process. It thus created a special VR-based process simulator that helped the team of consultants to test the sequencing of processes even before the actual deployment of the physical technologies. This virtual simulation let them find the right processes and certain error situations even before the delivery of all technologies, so they could reduce the prototyping time to the shortest time reasonable. The simulator will also help with developing, changing and adapting the project in future.

“I would like to stress the courage DŘEVO TRUST’s management showed in implementing such a large project. The customer-side internal team likewise worked with great professionalism, and so we are very pleased to have been able to help start a new era for this company’s logistics,“ says Vít Glasl, Aimtec’s Business Development Manager Production & Logistics, of this project.

DŘEVO TRUST, a.s.

is a Czech wood processing company with over twenty years of experience. It is the supplier with the largest network of stores in this field in the Czech Republic and has a portfolio of 20,000 products. High-volume purchasers – hobby markets and companies – are its main customers, but craftsmen and hobbyists purchase from it as well.

www.drevotrust.cz