Distribution center for office supplies

Conversion and expansion of the soft-carrier distribution center

Soft-carrier is a specialist distributor of IT products and office supplies. Over 42,000 items from 250 brand manufacturers - from paper clips to computer accessories - are managed, packaged and dispatched. The majority of orders are received online and delivered within 24 hours. This requires a smooth flow of materials and high availability.

When the order was placed, the warehouse was operated purely as a replenishment warehouse. It offered space for 2,600 pallets and 15,000 containers and was equipped with incoming and outgoing goods as well as the corresponding equipment. The actual order picking at the company's other sites was largely manual.

The contract awarded to Unitechnik involved tripling the storage capacity to 47,000 containers, replacing all existing control systems during ongoing operations and setting up a modern computer-aided distribution center.

Scope of services Unitechnik:

General contractor

Control technology:

• 12 S7-400 controllers
• Profibus-DP with 200 decentralized bus devices

Warehouse management system:

• UniWare warehouse management and material flow computer
• Oracle database
• 18 client PCs

Switchgear construction
Installation
Commissioning and training
Service contract