Our customer
As an international manufacturer of filling and packaging systems for the beverage, food and non-food industries, KHS GmbH occupies a leading position in the industry. Headquartered in Dortmund, KHS GmbH achieved sales of around 1,137 million euros in 2017 with 5,070 employees. KHS GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Salzgitter AG. In addition to international production sites in the USA, Mexico, Brazil, India and China, KHS develops and produces the entire portfolio of filling and packaging machines at five German locations. Especially high-performance systems, but also solutions for smaller outputs are on offer. KHS GmbH is valued as a market leader and supplier of innovative, reliable and highly efficient products and services such as complete turnkey systems, stand-alone machines, conversions and not least because of a 24/7 global on-site service.
Customer requirements
- KHS was looking for a new container series for the German production sites.
- With a new, standardized container concept, the kanban and production supply processes within the production, assembly and logistics areas as well as between the locations should be as efficient as possible.
- KHS already uses BITO general cargo rack systems for storage, and the containers should fully utilize the complete depth of the 1200 mm roller conveyor length.
- The development of containers in a standard length of 600 mm, with different widths and heights was required.
- KHS requires a very large parts portfolio for the assembly of the machines. There are therefore many, different sized items to store.
- Installing long components that are frequently used requires an efficient, space-saving plastic container.
- The height of the new boxes should also be fully usable for the small parts storage, therefore, the containers must have no openings.
- The hand grip of the parts during manual handling must be optimal, the containers must be as narrow as possible, but wide enough so that the parts can be easily removed by hand.
- All containers should be compatible with each other. The plastic boxes should be easily and safely stacked on the trolleys newly introduced by KHS, which are used for transport to the production supply within the plant and between the locations.
- It is important that every single container on the trolleys can be seen directly and at a glance.The ergonomics at the assembly site should be improved.
- Also the handle ergonomics must be particularly good, as even heavy parts up to 18 kg internal load must be carried in it.
- Stock stability is required to prevent the floor from sagging when storing the heavy components.
- Successively, the conversion to the new containers is also to take place in the other plants.
The BITO Solution
- Euromodule container series EMB
» BITO had its own tool built for a container series tailor-made for KHS: the Euromodul container series EMB
- Standard length 600 mm in different widths
» The module containers are always 600 mm long. The boxes are available in widths of 133 mm, 266 mm and 400 mm. Two of the smaller containers (133 mm) correspond to the width of the middle box (266 mm). Three of the narrower containers (133 mm) correspond to the widest variant (400 mm). A medium (266 mm) and a narrow box (133 mm) correspond to the width of the container size 400 mm. The EMB container is available in all widths in the two heights 142.5 mm and 270 mm. Two of the lower boxes (142.5 mm) correspond to the height of a 270 mm container.
- Compatible with each other
» The formats of the EMB are so sophisticated that they optimally exploit the area format of a Euro pallet, a 1200 through rack and a 600 trolley (this is not possible with many other Kanban container formats).
- Good grip of the parts
» The width of 133 mm is narrow but also so comfortable that it can be comfortably gripped by hand into the container and parts can be easily removed.
- Particularly stable ribbed bottom
» The EMB has a high-quality, particularly stable ribbed bottom, which is designed as a modular floor. Thus, the mixed stacking of different sizes succeeds problem-free and, above all, stable and secure - and also across the container edges.
- Ergonomic handles
» The undergrip handles are ergonomically shaped for high carrying and pulling comfort, while the straight inner surfaces provide a high filling volume.
- Easy to clean
» The smooth inner walls are easy to clean and easy to keep clean.
- Ideal for use in Kanban processes
» The EMB optimally fits in inclined floor or general cargo flow racks and is therefore ideally suited for use in Kanban processes within production and assembly areas.application
Storage facility features
- KHS essentially uses a two-vessel Kanban system to supply the production and assembly areas - supplemented by conventionally provided material commissions.
- It is essentially manual, so ergonomic shelving heights are used at the staging areas where the new container sizes are used.
- The same containers with the same contents always stand at the assembly stations. The fitter knows exactly where to find which part and can quickly access it.VieleIn the boxes, many different article variants are stored and transported in the boxes, from small parts to heavy loads and long components.
- The shelf of a trolley has the size of half a Euro pallet (1200 x 600 mm) and contains all the parts needed to make an assembly. Accordingly, a certain number of containers are positioned on a trolley. The trolleys are connected to a tugger train, which supplies individual assembly stations.
- More containers go, also on the trolleys, back to the filling.BehälterAll containers are provided with codes from the outside on the trolleys. This immediately shows which parts are in the respective container.
- The articles are assigned to fixed places, the placer recognizes directly to which place on the shelf a container belongs.
- All boxes are securely stacked in a network and can be modularly stacked in all sizes. The order of stacking is independent of the size of the container.customer benefits.
Customer benefits
- Overall, the new containers significantly simplify the flow of material and transport, making work much easier.
- The standard container length of 600 mm in all container types or container widths, the EMB can also be used for the many components with elongated geometry.
- The favorable width-length ratio of the boxes makes it possible that the entire container volume can be exploited, especially when storing long parts. The container length of 600 mm ensures a high degree of volume utilization in the general cargo through-racks. Regardless of the width and height of the containers, two boxes in a row always fit the shelf depth of the SDS roller conveyors. The use of the shelf volume is now up to 40% higher than before with the EMB containers.
- There has been a bottleneck for employees to date, and the new container sizes are now being used efficiently. The space required for material supply at the assembly stations is now in very good proportion to the number of parts provided.
- Improved ergonomics at the assembly site, only a few containers are left outside the classic gripping area.
- Quicker access to the parts possible.
- Despite different widths and regardless of the height dimension, the boxes are stackable so that they stand securely together when transported. There is no further load securing necessary.
- The compatibility of the EMB containers also saves stacking of the boxes when e.g. At the end of stacking a large container comes to where only small containers were used at the beginning - or vice versa.
- The tug trolleys are now being used perfectly.
- The coding and labeling or the clear sorting of the boxes on the vehicle allow the individual containers to be viewed more quickly.
- No pass-through handles, so that the entire container height can be used and even small parts do not fall out.
- The under handle of the EMB is very user friendly and ergonomic in handling.A particularly sturdy construction of the floors ensures that even heavy point loads caused by heavy components do not cause the base to deflect
- High efficiency in the various requirement areas with clearly noticeable positive effects on the process costs.
Customer statement
We needed a poolable container suitable for all locations, which takes into account all the special features of the KHS material spectrum. KHS wanted to optimize the transport and material flow processes with a customized container series and become more efficient in internal production supply processes in order to reduce process costs. The Euro module container from BITO made this possible.
Frederic Nitka, Head of Cross-Section, KHS GmbH
