(Neunkirchen) ‘We were able to expand the largest pharmaceutical refrigerator of a logistics service provider in Germany by another 800 pallet spaces,’ says Dennis Spamer, Managing Director of Movianto for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. ‘And all of this during ongoing operations in compliance with all GDP regulations for pharmaceutical products.’ From this month, 8,000 pallet spaces are now available in the refrigerated area (2 to 8 degrees Celsius) at the Neunkirchen site of the logistics service provider specialising in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. Previously there were 7,200.
In order to create additional capacity without expanding the outer shell of the warehouse, Movianto has dismantled conventional high-bay racks and invested in several new push-back racking systems. With this type of racking, up to five pallets can be pushed into a rack compartment one behind the other. They are stored on a slightly inclined roller conveyor so that they move forwards independently by gravity alone, where they can be removed or pushed in using a forklift truck. In Neunkirchen, the shelving system has more than 50 bays, each of which is five pallets deep and seven pallets high. ‘Because the slide-in system eliminates intermediate aisles, we can now utilise the existing space more efficiently. The degree of space utilisation in this part of the cold store has increased by 50 percent.’
The project took nine months, including planning, with most of the conversion work taking four months, completed over the turn of the year. In addition to the reconfiguration, the refrigeration and fire protection technology was also brought up to date.