The Dutch AVIKO Group, Europe’s second-largest producer of potato products, has commissioned SIVAplan with the construction of a refrigerated gangway warehouse. The fully-automatic warehouse will be constructed at Lomm, to the north of Venlo, and will accommodate 1,800 palette storage locations. Thanks to the gangway warehouse technology favourised by SIVAplan, it proved possible to select an extremely space-saving and economical design with only one shelf-operating system. The cost benefits achieved in this way and the complete integration with the company’s own SAP system proved decisive in the award of the contract to the Troisdorf company.

High-rise warehouses are achieving ever greater dimensions. Heights of up to 40 m and lengths of up to 200 m are no longer anything unusual; storage capacities in some cases now reach 100,000 palette locations and more. Large warehouses simultaneously place great demands on the material flow: in order to meet the specifications for rapid and flexible movement of goods into and out of stock, 20 to 30 shelf-operating systems are used, which store palettes with telescopic systems to single or double depth. The obvious disadvantages of this technology are high investment costs for the operating units and the necessary construction measures such as concrete supporting panels, roof and wall panelling. (more...)