Material Flow Planning at Lenze Austria

At Lenze Austria's assembly center, more than 120,000 geared motors are currently assembled. When it comes to speed in production and assembly, intra-company material flow plays a central role.

The project group examined the processes in the electromechanical department and documented the current state as follows: Material provisioning is done through the "Picking" area using automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and a logistics train. Due to the complexity of the multi-stage assembly processes, challenges arise in the flow of provisioning carts (congestions / overprovisioning while simultaneously underprovisioning other areas). Changes in assembly lot sizes (increase in high runners and decrease in low-volume products) and changes in provisioning (increase in fixturing / order-specific picking decreases) also contribute to the challenges.

To sustainably and effectively optimize material flow in a company, a thorough material flow analysis had to be conducted, along with real-time measurement of provisioning carts in the logistics and assembly areas, and an analysis of picking/provisioning processes.

The objectives of the corporate project include a transparent material flow, a provision medium that matches the material or quantity (provisioning carts vs. container provisioning vs. fixturing), and a process to minimize congestion and underprovisioning of assembly systems. Additionally, there was a desire to provide a proposal for an optimal provisioning system, including order tracking, as well as recommendations for controlling picking orders.

"The collaboration with the FH-OÖ team was extremely positive. The students were able to analyze our processes on-site with a neutral perspective. At the end of the project, there are many insights and concrete recommendations that will be implemented in the coming weeks," said Michael Dannerbauer, Head of Logistics.

"My thanks go to the responsible parties at FH Steyr and the corporate project team for the excellent collaboration. Due to the well-structured approach and communicative style, many insights were gained, and optimization potentials were identified, which can now transition into an implementation phase," summarized Alfred Ritirc, Lenze Process Management.