Varta Automated High-Bay Warehouse

Project Overview

Varta faced significant logistics challenges due to consecutive years of double-digit sales growth and the accompanying volume increases. The company's existing warehouse structures for finished goods, semi-finished goods, and raw materials had reached their limits, necessitating an alignment of intralogistics with their growth level to maintain service quality regarding responsiveness and flexibility.

The project involved creating a centralized logistics site that serves production operations while functioning as both a raw materials/consumables warehouse and finished goods/shipping warehouse. The new facility needed to support Varta's small batch production operations while accommodating the trend toward full pallet shipping.

Technical Solution

SAP EWM Implementation

Varta selected SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) as the core software solution. The system features a standard interface to the existing SAP ERP system and offers future-proof connectivity to S4 Hana. A key advantage was EWM's ability to communicate directly with PLCs without requiring additional interface development or reprogramming in the existing environment.

Key Features

The SAP EWM integration provides direct PLC communication capabilities, eliminating the need for additional interface development. This streamlined approach reduces complexity and maintenance requirements.

The goods-to-person principle represents a significant operational improvement over traditional man-to-goods methods. Materials are now delivered fully automatically to picking workstations, optimizing workflow efficiency.

The centralized logistics approach consolidates multiple warehouse functions into a single, standardized operation. This includes handling finished goods, semi-finished goods, raw materials, consumables, and supplies while serving both production and shipping needs.

Results & Benefits

The automated system enabled Varta to handle 2.5 to 3 years of continued growth without increasing their workforce. This represents significant labor efficiency improvements and cost savings.

Error likelihood has been significantly reduced through the fully automated system, which limits possibilities for manual intervention. The system-supported logic and sorting sequences have enormously increased operational speed and accuracy.

The project has positioned logistics as a crucial pillar for increasing productivity and enhancing customer satisfaction across the Varta organization. The successful implementation is now planned for rollout to other Varta facilities worldwide.

Challenges & Solutions

Varta faced exhausted warehouse structures due to consecutive years of double-digit sales growth and volume increases. The solution involved implementing a new automated high-bay warehouse with SAP EWM to handle the expanded requirements.

The company needed standardized warehouse and picking processes that could integrate with their existing SAP ERP system. SAP EWM provided the necessary standardization with its built-in interface capabilities and direct PLC communication, eliminating custom development requirements.

System Integrator

Viastore served as the system integrator, providing perfect chemistry from the start and delivering a customized solution that covered all of Varta's requirements. They successfully managed an ambitious schedule, with the decision to build made in 2018 and the warehouse operational by July 2020 - a remarkably fast implementation timeline for such a complex automation project.