Weidmüller appoints GEBHARDT as the general contractor
Sinsheim / Detmold February 8th, 2021 – The Detmold electrical engineering company Weidmüller has appointed the GEBHARDT Intralogistics Group as general contractor and Intralogistics solution provider for the construction of a new logistics centre near Eisenach, Germany. The project comprises an innovative logistics centre including conveyor and storage technology as well as the control system and software, due for completion in 2022.
With its six production sites, 31 sales companies and over 60 subsidiaries worldwide, Weidmüller is one of the market leaders in industrial connectivity. More than 5,000 employees develop, produce, and sell high-tech technologies in the industrial sector such as energy, signals and data to the various focus markets. The electrical engineering company was founded in 1850 and generated a turnover of 830 million euros in 2019.
The family business stands for flexibility and customer satisfaction and guarantees its customers delivery reliability of 99.5% – GEBHARDT tackles this task as a general contractor from conceptual project planning, purchasing and construction of all logistical trades up to the coordination of the process steps on site.
Maximilian Dolch, project manager at Weidmüller, explains why the company chose the intralogistics manufacturer: "With the 'Next Generation Logistics' project we are planning the construction of a new global distribution centre that will meet the high demands and requirements of our customers and markets in the best possible way. We are particularly dependent on reliable and high-performance logistics. GEBHARDT has convinced us through its technological orientation and solution competence as well as on a personal level, that they are the right partners for this contract. Both GEBHARDT and Weidmüller are family businesses which live by similar values and therefore harmonise and complement each other very well".
The majority of the 70,000 articles in the existing product portfolio will in future be handled and dispatched worldwide via the new logistics centre. The range includes small parts such as terminal blocks and connectors as well as larger items such as printers. The GEBHARDT solution, therefore, includes a high-performance tote shuttle warehouse with GEBHARDT StoreBiter® One-Level-Shuttles, a pallet warehouse served by several automated storage and retrieval machines of the Cheetah® heavy type, various manual and automatic picking workstations, a manual long goods warehouse, a high-tech dispatch area with a fully automatic palletising system for shipping and CEP dispatch using the GEBHARDT ConBoom® telescopic belt conveyors. The system is controlled and managed by SAP MFS/EWM and integrated with a connection to the subordinate control system. Weidmüller and GEBHARDT have agreed on a full-service offer beyond the new system in the sense of highest availability and partnership.
Not only the customised and highly scalable offer spoke for the new partnership with GEBHARDT, but also the project title of the new warehouse location - "Next Generation Logistics" (NGL). While the Sinsheim-based company has been living the motto "Next Generation Intralogistics" for years, it is now a matter of making the new logistics centre just as future-proof in order to ensure its competitiveness. During the request for proposal phase of the general planner commissioned by Weidmüller, io-consultants GmbH & Co. KG, we were able to convince them above all with a technical and logistical approach. "With two high-performance partners, the plan is for the first goods to leave the new NGL as early as mid-2022," says Fabian Hesebeck, Senior Consultant at io-consultants.
"We are delighted that Weidmüller awarded us the contract for the new logistics centre, which approaches the double-digit million euro mark, and we are confident that the intralogistics solution we have developed over the past few weeks will meet all individual requirements as well as the idea itself. The new building in Eisenach will support Weidmüller's growth based on all GEBHARDT technologies – according to the guiding principle: Next Generation", Fritz Gebhardt, Managing Director of the GEBHARDT Intralogistics Group, concludes on the newly won partnership.