Migros will pick fully-automated in the future with OPM

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1 Issue Spring 2010 CONTENT» P. 2 New WITRON-subsidiary in Spain» P. 3 New innovation on the market: WITRON ATS» P. 5 Mercadona (ES): Use of OPM and ATS in fresh and frozen logistics WITRON logistics day at Mercadona Madrid (ES)» P. 4 Porsche (DE) decides again in favor of WITRON Inex (FIN) trusts WITRON expertise» P. 6 WITRON logistics day at Future Electronics (USA) WITRON is awarded a follow-up order from Switzerland Migros will pick fully-automated in the future with OPM Migros, the largest food retailer in Switzerland with a revenue of 11 billion Euros, awarded WITRON the order to implement its OPM system in Suhr. After ramp-up of the system in April 2011, Migros will have the capability to supply over 600 stores throughout Switzerland using the state-of-the-art logistics center in Suhr. As general contractor, WITRON will not only design and implement the logistics system, its subsidiary FAS will produce and install the tray conveyor system, tray stacker cranes and COM machines. This order further expands the strong partnership between both companies. "With the new picking system, Migros will be able to develop additional business areas and expand existing ones. The continuously increasing market requirements can be perfectly covered with the dynamic functionalities of the OPM system. This investment is another step into a bright and dynamic future of the MVS (Migros Verteilzentrum Suhr)", says Daniel Waltenspuehl, head of the MVS. The system is composed of a 56-aisle tray warehouse with 285,000 tray locations. In the future, 315,000 cases from a dry assortment consisting of 4,500 different SKUs will be picked each day with 28 COM machines. These 28 COM machines will produce store-friendly pallets. Since the entire order picking will be done without human intervention, it will be free from any pick errors. The existing high bay warehouse that was implemented by WITRON in 2002 will serve as a replenishment warehouse consisting of 68,000 pallet locations. A part of the former system will also be used for the processing of special offers, as a buffer warehouse for dispatch pallets and for the receiving of vendor supplied product. The realization of the project will be both a logistical and architectural feat. The compact footprint of WITRON's OPM will allow the new storage area to be erected on the roof of the existing logistics center.

2 WITRON establishes new subsidiary in Spain The general contractor increases its presence in the international market "WITRON has been successful in the Spanish market since The five OPM systems we have designed and implemented for the Spanish retail company Mercadona provide proof of that success", says CEO Helmut Prieschenk. "The subsidiary in Spain helps us in supporting Mercadona and the rest of the Spanish market that provides high potential for our innovative tote and pallet picking system solutions". So far, WITRON has implemented 286 COM (Case Order Machine) machines in 17 OPM (Order Picking Machinery) projects throughout the world. A total of 111 COM machines are operated in Spain alone, with OPM systems serving ambient, cooled, and frozen environments. The OPM case picking system uses WITRON's innovative COM to automatically "build" store-friendly order pallets or roll containers. More effective support of our customers "The excellent market and product knowledge of our local employees on-site has helped our WITRON subsidiaries to develop successful projects in the different regions and markets we serve. The result is strong customer loyalty as measured by the number of follow-up projects. We are convinced that our new subsidiary in Spain will expand our cooperation with Mercadona and help in realizing similar projects with other Spanish companies", says Helmut Prieschenk. "We are very optimistic that we can achieve these goals." The new established subsidiary of WITRON in Ciempozuelos, near Madrid. WITRON Logistik + Informatik GmbH increased its international market presence and established a new subsidiary in Ciempozuelos near the Spanish capital Madrid at the end of March WITRON Espana Avenida de las Palmeras 16, A6 Poligono Industrial La Sendilla Ciempozuelos/Madrid Phone: Fax: info@witron.es

3 WITRON Automated Tote System (ATS) Fully automated picking of whole totes and drink crates WITRON has launched a new, fully automated tote picking system on the market. This patentpending ATS concept enables the fully automated generation of dispatch units, consisting of totes and/or drinks crates, which have been filled with goods from the in-house production department or by the supplier. The dispatch crates are collected in the ATS without employee involvement or ID entry, buffered, picked, stacked onto a dispatch unit in a customised and/or store-friendly manner and staged for outbound delivery. These applications are most commonly found in the fresh and temperature-controlled areas of distribution centres in food retail. The solution can also be used in crate picking with greater cost efficiency. With eliminating strength-sapping lifting and carrying of heavy totes, the ATS is setting new standards in ergonomics. The new system completes the WITRON portfolio of highly efficient modular warehousing order picking solutions for the retail and wholesale market and is the ideal complement to the automated picking systems OPM for case picking and DPS for piece picking. With WITRON ATS it is possible to pick either crates or totes fully automated in a customized and/or store-friendly manner. With ATS, the entire material flow is significantly simplified. Firstly, a large variety of products such as fruit and vegetables, meat or fish items are delivered to the distribution centre in totes already packed by the supplier in stacks on single SKU pallets. There, a single identification process takes place centrally. Follow-up in the system is guaranteed by indirect target tracking, thereby completely disposing of the need for time-consuming physical labelling of individual totes with a barcode or other identification. Thanks to the flexibility of the system, the use of whole and half totes, each with different heights, are handled seamlessly. Once the stacks of totes have been slid off the inbound pallet and then separated, highly dynamic stacker cranes known as Picking Mini Loads (PMLs) place the totes in an ASRS (automated storage and retrieval system) for intermediate buffering. To increase system output, several totes can be stored and transported simultaneously in stacks. The PMLs also provide for store-friendly retrieval of the totes to generate dispatch pallets, with each PML able to accept up to four totes simultaneously per trip. High cost efficiency The removed totes are then transported to a stacking device, where all the totes belonging to one client order are stacked mechanically on top of one another and pushed onto a pallet using an efficient pallet loading operation. Specific requirements, such as the unloading sequence in the store, maximum fill level or loading height can be parameterised flexibly according to the customers wishes. Even the generation of double-deck (sandwich) pallets is provided for a way of inceasing the shipping volume. The final step is the transportation of the securely stretch-wrapped order pallets to the dispatch area or the intermediate storage area in a pallet warehouse, always taking into account the consolidation of all the order pallets according to customer requirements and shipping routes. New standards in ergonomics The ATS concept offers major benefits for the user: High cost-efficiency due to a fully automated process chain throughout the system - no longer any need for staff-intensive repacking and order picking 100% accuracy is achieved using order generation in the ASRS Generation of store-friendly crates and totes in aisle unloading sequence based on specific customer requirements No physical labelling or checking of transport units required anymore, since indirect target tracking can be used thanks to branch-free transport and short conveyor lines Low energy and construction costs due to modular, compact design With ATS, WITRON has again succeeded in recognising market requirements and offering the best possible logistics solution to suit. It has taken the company very little time to win its first project, and there are two more currently in the detailed planning phase.

4 Porsche (DE) decides again in favor of WITRON New central warehouse will pick with WITRON's OPS-system Porsche's new central warehouse is currently being erected at its locations in Sachsenheim (Germany). Porsche, the manufacturer of premium sports vehicles from Stuttgart (Germany) awarded WITRON Logistik + Informatik GmbH the order to realize an automated warehouse and picking system for their new central spare parts center in Sachsenheim. WITRON was awarded the order after convincing Porsche it had the best concept during the course of a highly competitive bidding phase. Productive use of the plant is scheduled for July The heart of Porsche's new central warehouse is WITRON's OPS (Order Picking System) for totes. Because its goods-to-man design allows it to handle a very broad range of SKUs, the OPS has proven itself as an effective and efficient solution for many spare parts applications worldwide. The OPS for Porsche has been designed for maximum flexibility, allowing spare parts to be stored in totes with different heights, in totes with inserts or on trays that hold several small load carriers. The OPS will store 75,000 different SKU's from Porsche's spare parts assortment in a 12-aisle miniload AS/RS that holds 170,000 totes. Picking will be done at 16 workstations into both shipping cartons based on a volume calculation and returnable totes from Porsche. An advantage of the OPS system is the separation of the material flow from the workstations enabling a highly dynamic picking of articles and a sequenced provision of the storage totes at the pick locations. Once the dispatch packages and labeling have been finished, the packages will be prepared for transportation to the dispatch area. WITRON's RF-based TMS will carry out the loading control and manage non-automated order picking areas which contain parts not suitable for tote storage. The WITRON performance scope for the Porsche project also includes the production and installation of the entire tote conveyor mechanics (cranes, conveyor system, sequence buffers) executed by its subsidiary FAS. This latest project in Sachsenheim further expands the long-lasting partnership between Porsche and WITRON. WITRON previously implemented its RF-based TMS system at Porsche's Ludwigsburg location and several other conventional warehouses in year 2000, optimizing its material flow from receiving through to dispatch. INEX trusts WITRON expertise Major order from Finland INEX Partners Oy, the logistics service provider of the S Group has commissioned general contractor WITRON Logistik + Informatik to provide an automated material handling system for a new 53,000 m 2 distribution centre. WITRON managed to impress by presenting the best overall concept in an ideas contest and by boasting long-standing experience with the realisation of projects of this magnitude. By March 2012, the Sipoo site located close to the capital Helsinki will be home to one of the largest logistics plants in Scandinavia, supplying goods to over 1,200 outlets of the S Group. to expand the e-commerce and spare parts business systematically with the new warehouse. The S Group, the market leading Finnish trade company, employs 37,735 people in total. S Group's retail sales were EUR billion in The logistics service provider INEX Partners Oy had 1,793 employees in 2008 and posted revenue of EUR billion. Goods will span a huge variety of product groups, from clothing, cosmetics and sports items to electronic equipment, garden items and furniture, and right through to spare parts for cars and agricultural machinery. To achieve perfect synchronisation of all the logistical requirements with maximum efficiency and cost effectiveness, the highly dynamic WITRON picking modules DPS (Dynamic Picking System), OPS (Order Picking System) and CPS (Car Picking System) will be used. With the new distribution centre, the logistics service provider INEX will be perfectly capable of covering the constant growth of all S Group store chains. Through quicker deliveries that are more needs-oriented and tailored to the different store sizes and formats, the level of service for customers will be raised higher. What is more, it will be possible By March 2012, the Sipoo site will be home to one of the largest logistics plants in Scandinavia.

5 Fresh and frozen logistics with OPM and ATS Mercadona puts trust in the world's first ATS from WITRON alongside OPM at its Leon site In early June 2009, the Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona decided to adopt the fully automated warehouse and picking system OPM (Order Picking Machinery), supplied by general contractor WITRON, for its fresh and frozen foods sections at its Leon site. WITRON was awared to introduce the OPM system for dry-range picking at this site back in December The distribution centre in Leon supplies goods to 177 stores on a daily basis. In March 2011, the fully automated OPM system will be up and running. 108,000 cases per day will be picked in a store-friendly manner from a range of approximately 1,100 fresh, frozen and perishable products using 13 COM machines. The cases will be supplied to the COM machines via a 26-aisle tray warehouse divided into three temperature zones (minus 23 degrees, plus 2 degrees and plus 12 degrees Celsius). Replenishment will be carried out from a pallet high bay warehouse with 8,800 storage locations. Practical use of world's first WITRON-ATS In addition to OPM, Mercadona will be using WITRON's world-first ATS (Automated Tote System) for highly dynamic, fully automated whole tote picking. With this solution, more than 100,000 totes a day are picked errorfree from a range of approximately 330 fresh items ranging from fruits and vegetables to meat and fish products, then stacked onto order pallets in a store-friendly manner and dispatched. The 16-aisle tote ASW with 29,000 storing positions is divided into two independent temperature zones (plus 2 degrees and plus 12 degrees). Use of the ATS results in significant optimisation of all processes, as is the case with OPM, the entire material flow is processed automatically. In the future, store orders can be delivered on half or whole pallets and placed together directly in the HBW using stacker cranes. Through picking of another 10,000 cases from a small manual warehouse, almost 220,000 cases a day will leave the state-of-the-art logistics centre for fresh and frozen articles. The supermarket chain Mercadona, with a revenue of EUR billion, has forged a very successful partnership with WITRON that dates back to Once the project in Leon has been commissioned, this will take the number of WITRON COM machines in operation in the dry-range, fresh and frozen sections of the five Mercadona distribution centres to 111. The projects realised jointly to date are a clear indication of client satisfaction and proof of the cost-efficiency, flexibility and high availability of the WITRON technology used. WITRON Logistics Day at... Mercadona, Madrid (Spain) Over 50 logistics experts from all over Europe learned all about the innovative logistics solutions in the Mercadona distribution centre. More than 50 international guests visiting Ciempozuelos near Madrid were given an insight into one of the most efficient distribution centres in Europe. The Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona chose the WITRON Logistics Day as the occasion to open its doors for the first time to logistics experts from trade and industry. The central logistics element at the site in Ciempozuelos is the Order Picking Machinery (OPM). With OPM, it is possible to produce store-friendly order pallets both in the dry goods range and in the fresh and frozen foods sections without deploying any staff whatsoever. Small-volume SKU's are picked using totes with the Dynamic Picking System (DPS). The automated storage, stacking and consolidation of full, half and quarter pallets is optimised with the Pallet Storage - Stacking Machinery (PSSM) module. The plant's picking speed is very impressive. For example, up to 470 cases per COM per hour are picked with the OPM system. A total of 76 COM machines have been installed in Ciempozuelos. The picking output at the DPS workstations is around 500 picks per workstation per hour. On peak days, over 920,000 cases are delivered from Ciempozuelos to Mercadona stores throughout the greater Madrid area.

6 1 st WITRON Logistics Day in USA at... Future Electronics, Memphis TN Supply chain experts were introduced to Future Electronics Memphis as part of WITRON's first "Logistics Day" event in US. Delegates from the auto, construction, medical, electronics, consumer goods, and grocery industries were introduced to WITRON's highly flexible and cost efficient automated warehouse at Future Electronics in Memphis, TN as part of WITRON's first "Logistics Day" event in US. Attendees learned how Future Electronics has used WITRON's Order Picking System (OPS) to gain market share and competitive advantage in the five years since the system went live in Memphis. Future Electronics notes several specific benefits they have realized with OPS: The lead time from order receipt to shipping has been reduced to a mere 30 minutes Labor requirements have been reduced by 70% compared to their previous conventional storage and picking methods Injury claims and accidents have been nearly eliminated due to major ergonomic improvements Employee retention and worker morale have been markedly improved, with employee turnover reduced to 1% or less Energy costs (air conditioning and lighting) have been reduced as a result of a more compact warehouse footprint Flexibility and expansion capability have been greatly improved through the modular design of WITRON's OPS Logistics Day was an educational event for all, enabling guests from different industries to see how automation can be used to solve today's distribution challenges. Karl Hoegen, CEO of WITRON North America, noted that "events like this give guests the opportunity to benchmark their own operations against world-class facilities like Future Electronics' Memphis DC." Future Electronics is the third largest electronic parts supplier in the world. Operating in 42 countries with 169 locations, Future provides an exemplary standard of quality. They are a world-class leader and innovator in the distribution and marketing of semiconductors, passive components, inter-connect, solid state lighting and mechanical products. WITRON's OPS at Future Electronics is based on a 23-aisle miniload AS/RS that holds 83,000 SKUs. The miniload system is used to deliver products to stationary picking workstations in front of the AS/RS. This automated goods-to-man picking system eliminates picker travel, thereby boosting productivity. Because the pickers are focused entirely on picking, accuracy is greatly enhanced as well. WITRON's relationship with Future extends beyond the Memphis DC. Their partnership continue with a second OPS in Leipzig, Germany, which went live in January North-West Europe WITRON Engineering BV Keizersveld 47c NL-5803 AM Venray Phone +31 (0) Fax +31 (0) info@witron.nl Responsibility Helmut Prieschenk CEO Editorial staff WITRON Logistik + Informatik GmbH Parkstein (Germany) marketing@witron.de Reprint and processing of the information presented, requires the written permission of the issuer. Despite highest possible diligence, no guarantee and/or liability is taken over for accuracy of statement.