Successful go-live of Kärcher’s new high-bay warehouse

Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG has invested in expanding their high-bay warehouses at their Obersontheim and Bühlertal locations and in their new service center in Ahorn. The new double-deep high-bay warehouse in Obersontheim with a capacity of more than 31,000 pallet spaces was realized within 11 months and went into operation in December 2022. io was the logistics planner on the project from concept planning to tendering and implementation.

Expansion of storage capacity – benefiting the environment

Kärcher has expanded its Global Parts Center in Obersontheim with the expertise of io, who has been in charge of detailed planning, tendering and implementation for the high-bay warehouse expansion since April 2021. More than three million delivery note items (spare parts and accessories) per year are shipped all over the world from the warehouse and other global logistics services are managed here, too. The high-bay warehouse expansion will triple the existing storage capacity for spare parts and accessories to ensure safe and fast movement of goods and replenishment for order picking.

“Order volumes are going to grow and we need to be prepared for that. The high-bay warehouse expansion means we can reduce transports between the central warehouse and the external warehouse in the future. This saves around 11,000 kilometers a year – a significant benefit for the environment. With io, we have an experienced consultant at our side who helped us to carry out the expansion within the planned budget and time frame,” explains Oliver Kienzle, Head of Physical Distribution at Kärcher.

An electric overhead conveyor with eight vehicles connects the picking workstations and supplies the high-bay warehouse. "The decision in favor of an electric monorail system and for an additional connection of the picking workstations to the container conveyor system will enable us to ideally adapt our processes in the storage and picking of spare parts and accessories to changing customer requirements in the future as well," says Fabian Grajer, project manager at Kärcher.

“The new 6-aisle, double-deep 33 m-tall high-bay warehouse allows for more than 31,000 pallets to be stored on approx. 4,500 m². This means space-efficient and economical storage,” says Christian Schindler, project manager at io, who is delighted with the successful project implementation.

The extension was successfully put into operation at the end of 2022.

“We are very pleased that the partnership and cooperation between our two companies will continue with the new Kärcher Service Center in Ahorn and the high-bay warehouse at the Bühlertal production site,” says Frank Czaja, Business Unit Manager Logistics at io.

Kärcher is the world’s leading supplier of cleaning technology. The family-owned company employs 15,330 people in 80 countries and more than 150 companies. More than 50,000 service centers in all countries ensure seamless customer service worldwide. Kärcher achieved the highest sales figures in its history in 2022 at €3.161 billion.