Kardex optimizes Hitachi Energy’s high-voltage service warehouse in Zurich with AutoStore

For the reorganization of the spare parts business at the Dietlikon site in the Swiss canton of Zurich, Hitachi Energy was looking for an innovative, sustainable, and exceptionally flexible solution. The global AutoStore partner and intralogistics expert Kardex offered the most convincing overall package and was commissioned with planning and implementing a fully automated AutoStore™ spare parts warehouse.

Hitachi Energy is a global leader in high-voltage technology, offering a wide range of high- voltage products up to 1,200-kilovolt (kV) helping enhance the safety, reliability and efficiency of power networks while minimizing environmental impact. The Dietlikon site, where the Kardex AutoStore solution is being implemented, covers all processes for the service components business of the "High Voltage Products" business unit. This includes goods receipt and inspection, storage, picking, packing, and shipping of the service com- ponents. 

 Sustainable, flexible, and highly efficient 

For the customized design of Hitachi Energy's AutoStore solution, Kardex performed 
several system simulations with real data during the planning phase. The results, which 
were based on the required operating times for picking and putaway of the service compo
nents as well as other customer requirements, led to a system configuration with a total 
capacity of 3,250 bins measuring 25.6 in × 17.7 in × 8.7 in (l × w × h). In the first expansion 
stage, the grid will be equipped with 3,000 bins only, two "Red Line" (R5) robots andtwo 
Conveyor Ports. Various system extensions are already in the planning. The Warehouse 
Management System (WMS) Kardex Control Center manages the various warehouse sys
tems and optimizes the connecting processes. 

"With our new AutoStore spare parts warehouse, we will be able to react even more flexi
bly to customer needs and process orders even faster thanks to greater availability of the 
service components," Looser continues. "In addition, as a pioneer in sustainable technolo
gies, we are setting another important milestone with our investment in AutoStore."

Hitachi Energy is actively working towards a sustainable energy future, which is exactly 
where the AutoStore technology will make an important contribution in the future. Ten 
AutoStore robots consume no more energy than a standard vacuum cleaner, and whenever 
robots lower a bin or reduce speed, power is returned to the batteries. AutoStore's compact 
design also requires no aisles, decreasing energy consumption significantly by reducing 
the number of areas that need to be illuminated. With an average availability of 99.6% 
and "built-in" redundancy, AutoStore is the world's most reliable and efficient storage system.Subheader