The quick and safe way to the smart factory

The automation and digitisation specialists Artschwager + Kohl, Heisab and Heitec support companies in optimising and modernising their intralogistics, from the ERP level to the MES and logistics level – right through to the shop floor. In doing so, they cover all the requirements of a smart factory in a comprehensive way. At Logimat 2020 they will be showing how warehouse technology can be expanded, modernised and digitalised across the entire automation pyramid.

For this purpose, the three companies developed a special and coordinated approach for the successful and consistent networking and digitisation of automated warehouses and logistics systems. As general contractors, Heitec, Heisab and Artschwager + Kohl draw on their many years of experience and specialist knowledge to make systems more reliable, highly available and consistently transparent. Successfully completed projects confirm the concept of combined competencies.

Since 1998, Artschwager + Kohl has been developing software for control systems that is independent of operating systems and can be flexibly adapted to changing situations in production operations and to new technologies. “Control systems must be able to grow with the requirements of the plant while at the same time being able to migrate safely and economically at any time. Constantly changing systems every five years is the wrong way to go”, says Jürgen Kohl, Managing Director at A+K. The company has developed its own techniques and tools, especially for the replacement of control systems during ongoing production. Today, the company's logistics and production control systems are used by companies around the world, e.g. by Google in California for the production of Google's own server systems, by the beverage specialist WeserGold in Rinteln, in the supply industry at Ideal Automotive and many other production plants in Europe, America and Asia.

As a powerful partner of SAP SE, Heisab supports companies on their way through the digital transformation, combining sound process and expertise in SAP with proven consulting methodology and modern technologies. Their portfolio includes comprehensive process and strategy consulting, from analysis and planning, design and integration to all-round service and support. In the field of intralogistics, Heisab offers smart and sustainable solutions for the digital networking and integration of processes and systems. Mobility and efficiency are in the foreground: Smart devices for mobile use already offer numerous possible applications in logistics, such as in warehouses, maintenance or quality management. Yet it is only in combination with functional apps based on SAP Fiori and customised SAP add-ons that the full optimisation potential of these solutions can be developed.

As an expert in automation and information technology, Heitec has developed a portfolio of solutions ranging from digital plant and process planning to virtual start-up and networking of plants and production processes to optimise production. These support the implementation of a smart factory with adaptive machines and plants with both centralised and decentralised production control systems. With its range of services in the areas of automation, production and test engineering, electronics as well as its experience in various industries, Heitec supports its customers in accelerating the transition to Industry 4.0. “We laid the foundation for this ten years ago with our virtual models and digital twins as virtual images of real processes”, explains Ekkehard Reuß, CEO of Heitec AG. “In the meantime, our portfolio also includes providing industrial companies with comprehensive communication and networking capabilities as well as process control. This way, we fulfil key points of the Industry 4.0 concept”.

References

The jointly realised projects in the modernisation of the high-bay warehouse of Vacuumschmelze Hanau, the retrofit of the high-bay warehouse of Hengstenberg, Bad Friedrichshall, the partial retrofit of the picking warehouse of Uvex in Schwabach and the integration of logistics into SAP EWM at ThyssenKrupp as well as in the beverage and filling lines of Wesergold show just how well the partnership between the above companies works. In addition, considerable optimisation potential was created in the area of SAP integration by linking a warehouse management system at Netzsch in Selb and by installing mobile handheld devices and networked scales at Schlenk in Roth.