The company

The Fibro company produces rotary indexing tables in Weinsberg since 1962 and is therefore a demanded partner on the world market for mechanical engineering.

The Task

For Fibro already in 1989 the warehouse management system for automated tray and pallet storage was realized. In the course of modernizing the rack conveyors also the warehouse management should be updated. It had to be taken into consideration that the functionalities of the old system must be integrated in the new system as well. The adoption was only possible at the weekend to avoid production disturbances.

The solution

First the Fablog GmbH set up a short system specification, a schedule as well as an integration plan in cooperation with the customer. For the realization of the warehouse management system the core of the Fablog-warehouse-management LOGIS with the AddOn „ComCon“ for connecting subordinate systems was put into operation. In the course of adoption the communication to MFS changed from serial communication to modern TCP/IP Online-communication.

The warehouse contains automated pallet and tray storage as well as paternoster lift storage.

In the tray warehouse the LOGIS-module “dynamic tray storage” was put into operation. This module calculates the optimal filling of trays and graphically shows the operator how and in which direction the bins have to be placed on the tray. Further optimization was realized by administration of service orders so that re-storage of parts - which are not needed by the service employee - is easily possible using the system.  At last the order release was optimized so that order can be released step-by-step and storage area comprehensive.

The adoption had to be done step-by-step because also motors and controls were changed on the planned weekends. Thus the pallet warehouse was put into operation on the first weekend and working during the following week. The other storage areas and their according HOST-communication remained under control of the “old” WMS. During the second step the integration of tray and paternoster warehouse followed. It turned out that the - from Fablog in close cooperation with the customer - developed concept of operating with both systems parallel was the right decision.

Finally the “old” WMS could be switched off.