Ergonomic order picking throught intelligent conveyor technology
The celluveyor offers an efficient and highly dynamic solution for curve transfer in use for order picking in the smallest of spaces, which has proven itself in practice since 2019. The intelligent technology ensures increased efficiency, reliable order picking and an ergonomic way of working.
Challenge at Arvato
Increased picking performance with high ergonomics and low space requirements
Arvato Media, based in Gütersloh, is a key player in book distribution logistics and delivers more than 90 million books a year, mainly to B2B customers, but also in the B2C sector. In 2017, Arvato began planning an expansion of order picking for so-called B and C articles – areas that often cause bottlenecks – in order to meet increasing requirements and increase efficiency. The challenge was to significantly increase capacity and create ergonomic workstations at the same time. With a highly dynamic solution that the picking performance was increased by 60%.
Around 16 million books are picked here every year. Particular attention was paid to the ergonomics of the workstations: All source and target bins are arranged on one level, and the height of the workstation can be adjusted to make work easier on the back. As employees move heavy loads every day, a health-friendly solution was key. The use of the celluveyor from cellumation made it possible to realize these ambitious requirements in the smallest possible space and to sustainably increase efficiency in the area of order picking.
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The solution
Automatic & dynamic celluveyor curves
The celluveyor is a versatile conveying and positioning system consisting of hexagonal cells with omnidirectional drive wheels. These can be flexibly configured and controlled by software.
The picking containers come directly from the storage system and the celluveyor ensures precise delivery within the picking station.
A 3D camera ensures optimum alignment so that heavy or bulky items can be removed easily.
The changeover time per container is less than 3.5 seconds, and up to 800 picks per hour are possible per machine.
In 2021, around sixteen million books were picked at the celluveyor workstations.
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More InformationContainer per celluveyor / year
System Integration
The actors
Arvato: End user
Arvato Supply Chain Solutions, originally active in Bertelsmann’s printing and industrial sector, now offers comprehensive supply chain and logistics solutions. Since 2019, the company has been operating five celluveyor-based ergonomic picking workstations at its headquarters in Gütersloh, which meet daily challenges such as high throughput and efficient picking.
cellumation: Provider
cellumation is an innovation driver in the field of material flow technology and is known for its advanced solutions for the automation of logistics processes. The patented celluveyor technology developed there enables complex material flow movements in the smallest of spaces at high speeds. Thanks to its modular design, the celluveyor has unlimited layout flexibility, is easy to maintain and quick to set up.
“We have been using the cellumation table for almost five years now. With over 1 million containers moved per year (per celluveyor), it has proven to be reliable, robust and virtually trouble-free. We are very satisfied with the performance and ergonomics of this workstation – our employees are also delighted.”
Optimum ergonomics
The process in detail
The workstation includes a picking station and target stations where the picked items are picked into containers. The celluveyor here comprises 39 cells with a conveying area of 822 mm x 1050 mm and a height-adjustable platform for ergonomic working. Thanks to the flexible orientation of the bins, optimum ergonomics are guaranteed, which is particularly important in view of demographic change. All employees benefit from the ergonomic design, as musculoskeletal disorders in intralogistics can lead to absences due to illness.
A milestone
The first celluveyor in operational use
The first celluveyor in operational use at Arvato Media marked a significant step in industrial automation. The introduction of a new technology always involves risks, especially if it has never been tested in an industrial environment before. This makes the fact that the celluveyor has been reliably in use for five years in collaboration with Arvato Media – without any system failures – all the more impressive. This project shows that the celluveyor is a robust, industrial-grade product that has proven itself in practice.
Based on this initial picking solution, cellumation has continuously developed the system further. Thanks to a flexible software architecture, various conveying tasks can now be covered with the cell technology – from sorting and sequencing to depalletizing and palletizing. The celluveyor technology has thus developed from a pure picking table into a universal conveyor system with extensive application possibilities in intralogistics.
„We would particularly like to thank Arvato Media and SSI Schäfer for placing their trust in our technology at a very early stage of our company’s history. It is very, very difficult for young German companies to find their first customer. And this trust and these discussions at eye level have helped us a great deal and we are very, very proud that our first system, our first five systems are in use here in Gütersloh and that it has been a perfect collaboration.“
Conclusion
Why the celluveyor is the ideal solution for Arvato:
Robust reliability:
Five celluveyors have been in operation at Arvato for five years without any system failures, each transporting around 1 million containers per year. Its high reliability ensures smooth operation and the modular design minimizes maintenance costs.
Ergonomic design:
The celluveyor enables an ergonomic way of working, as it can serve all containers to the employee in different ways.
High flexibility:
Thanks to its modular design, the celluveyor can be flexibly configured and adapted for various conveying tasks, from picking and sorting to palletizing.
Efficient use of space:
With its compact design, the celluveyor takes up very little space. This means that the available space can be used optimally to increase capacities in the warehouse.
Scalability through software:
Thanks to a software-based control system, the celluveyor can be adapted to new requirements without the need for a complex hardware conversion. This enables rapid adaptation to changing operating requirements.
cv.DEPAL
The compact & powerful system for depalletizing
cv.PAL
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cv.GO
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