A look inside the BMW Group's new high-bay warehouse at its Landshut facility.
A groundbreaking step toward electric and digital mobility: A new production environment has been created at the BMW Group’s Landshut site, designed to ensure a high level of technical cleanliness and a well-thought-out logistics infrastructure. To ensure compliance with the necessary standards, io was commissioned to design and implement a comprehensive hygiene and logistics system.
The goal was to establish the technical and organizational prerequisites for manufacturing particularly sensitive components under controlled conditions. It was also necessary to automate the supply and disposal of goods to the greatest extent possible. At the heart of the system is a highly complex control unit that, once in operation, will impose stringent requirements on quality and cleanliness. This unit is manufactured under technical cleanliness conditions in accordance with VDA 19 and in cleanrooms compliant with ISO 9—to protect against particle contamination, which cannot be ruled out under conventional production conditions.
Another unique feature was that the new production and logistics facility was built within an existing building, whose conditions had to be taken into account during the planning phase and initially upgraded to meet the new requirements.
Comprehensive Hygiene Concept
The io project team began by conducting a comprehensive on-site assessment. “When developing a hygiene concept for sensitive production areas, there are many factors to consider—from personnel flow and changing rooms to the selection of appropriate protective clothing,” explains Max Frentzel, a consultant at io. “In particular, the role of people as potential sources of particles was taken into account during the design phase.”
Today, the hygiene zone encompasses two production lines, cleanliness laboratories, and the conveyor system connection. The various cleanliness zones are separated from one another by a sophisticated ventilation system with a defined pressure cascade. The system reliably prevents the ingress of contaminant particles, thereby ensuring the required cleanliness in the sensitive areas.
Logistics Concept with a High Degree of Automation
In parallel with the construction of the new production facility, logistics were comprehensively restructured. As part of a new logistics strategy, the goal was not only to ensure the supply of the newly built production line in the same building. Additionally, the existing supply chain for the BMW Group plant in Landshut was to be automated and expanded through additional warehouse capacity.
In particular, the role of humans as a potential source of particles was taken into account during the design phase.
Special attention was paid to the interface with production.
The hygiene zone includes two production lines, cleanliness laboratories, and the conveyor system connection.
Together, they discussed and evaluated various layout solutions and developed a preferred option. io was also able to contribute various technical alternatives to the planning process. This went beyond just warehouse technology. “Special attention was paid to the interface with production,” adds Simon Löwisch, Principal Consultant at io. “We developed a process that begins with automated destacking and product recognition in the receiving area and ends with the appropriate automated production staging.” Large load carriers can thus be processed directly on the conveyor system. Small load carriers are delivered with pinpoint accuracy to the points of need using lifters or automatically transferred to transfer racks.
The result is a high-bay warehouse
Once planning and contracting were complete, the next step was to oversee implementation and commissioning. It was particularly important here to ensure that the automation requirements could be met given the structural conditions of the existing warehouse. For example, an iterative process was used to find a solution for the storage systems’ requirements regarding the floor slab.
The result is an automated, double-deep high-bay warehouse with approximately 35,000 storage locations and an automated small-parts warehouse with approximately 18,000 storage locations. An electric ground conveyor (EBB) connects the warehouse areas to the two loading tunnels and the production area. There is also a container conveyor system with a direct connection to production. The system is designed to handle a wide variety of load carriers, ranging from small cartons or small load carriers (KLT) to large load carriers measuring approximately 1.2 x 1.5 meters.
