At the headquarters of tractor manufacturer AGCO/Fendt in Marktoberdorf, Germany, a high-performance small-parts warehouse will ensure the supply of their production line in the future. The warehouse is optimized based on the available floor space and the material flow requirements on site. To increase the efficiency, automation and robotics expert Element Logic is implementing a future-proof and highly efficient AutoStore solution.

The American company, AGCO, is one of the world’s three largest manufacturers and suppliers of tractors and agricultural machinery. The Fendt brand has belonged to the American global player since 1997. All Fendt tractors are developed and produced at the headquarters in Marktoberdorf, Germany.

In order to meet the demands from the customers, manufacturing companies today have to stock a growing range of individual parts. As a result, existing warehouse capacities need to be expanded, resulting in additional personnel costs in production supply. Short provision times with simultaneously high added value do not have to be a problem despite expanded warehouse capacities – it is simply a matter of creating a smooth and efficient transition between production supply and assembly lines.

“With traditional warehousing, it became increasingly difficult to meet the growing demands on our small parts logistics, even from an economic point of view,” says Jens Kirchner, Supply Chain Manager at Fendt Warehouse. “On our premises, the utilization of the available space is of immense value. AutoStore, with its high storage density, was clearly standing out compared to all other solutions.”

Low energy consumption

The search for an alternative intralogistics solution led AGCO/Fendt to AutoStore and Element Logic, the world’s first AutoStore partner and the market leader in Europe with more than 220 AutoStore solutions sold. Numerous references within the production segment with customers such as STIHL, SCHUNK and Continental, convinced the tractor manufacturer of Element Logic’s extensive expertise and many years of experience in implementing future-proof intralogistics solutions. Element Logic has implemented AutoStore at other AGCO Group sites – including AGCO Parts’ European spare parts center in Ennery, France.

Sustainability in production is a high priority for AGCO/Fendt, which was critical to the decision. The company focuses on reducing its own power consumption and using renewable energy – this is precisely where AutoStore systems can make an important contribution. The energy consumption of ten AutoStore robots is actually equivalent to that of a vacuum cleaner, and every time a bin is lowered or the speed on the robots are reduced, energy is returned to the battery. AutoStore’s compact design also eliminates the need for aisles, significantly reducing space that requires lighting.

In Marktoberdorf, the AutoStore system will be installed in one of the existing buildings in the immediate vicinity of the transmission production, and in the future, it will supply all production lines with materials, such as small parts and semi-finished products. The parts and products that the production lines need will be automatically picked by the AutoStore system, pre-packed and supplied to the production lines via tugger trains, which will be loaded at the AutoStore system.

On a floor space of 315 m², the AutoStore solution implemented for AGCO/Fendt offers space for a total of 12,100 bins with an external height of 330 mm each. Eleven robots will handle the bins on top of the grid. Picking and packing is carried out at three ergonomically optimized workstations. The entire process is optimized by Element Logic’s own software, eManager, which is directly integrated into the customer’s ERP system. The system was handed over to the customer at the end of April 2021.