GfA opens new high-rack warehouse
"With this new high-rack warehouse we commit to Düsseldorf as our company location and set a benchmark towards our future," emphasises Stephan Kleine, CEO at GfA. The market leader in the field of drive units and controls for industrial doors intends to continue the enormous growth of previous years. Ten years ago GfA supplied approximately 75,000 drives, today this number has more than doubled to exceeding 160,000 units. "Our previous high-rack warehouse, which was built in 1994, had reached its capacity limits," explains St. Kleine and justifies the decision for this constructional measure, "moreover, in this way we are able to provide more innovative and customised logistics processes to our customers, ranging up to supply-chain management for each individual site.
"In cooperation with Vollack, a specialist company for office and industrial buildings, we analysed the requirements and processes and developed a planning concept that will live up to our future working methods and organizational structures," says St. Kleine. "As a result, we created a building that ensures efficient and flexible customer support with short supply times and provides sufficient space for future growth."
Warehouse concept tailored to meet growth requirements
The new high-rack warehouse rises up to a height of 21 meters. More than 1,100 flat and 3,700 high storage bins are available on a surface area of 900 square meters. Moreover, there is the small parts warehouse with an additional surface area of 800 square meters. This means that our storage capacity has tripled compared to our old high rack. The state-of-the-art technology inside the warehouse was supplied by Mlog Logistics GmbH in Neuenstadt. This building also provides most advanced environmental technology. It requires only minimum heating but indoor temperature is kept at a constant value of more than 12°C. Building the new warehouse while continuing our day-to-day business was equally challenging as meeting the highly complex fire protection requirements. Due to disassembly of the previous high-rack system the other departments also benefit from the new building. The capacities for production can be expanded and the department for prototype and tool construction uses the free space for expansion of the testing and inspection area.