Quality improves well-being

New high-bay warehouse at Essity in Mannheim.

If you want to improve the quality of life for millions of people every day, then you need a reliable system functioning in the background, such as a storage system. After a construction period of just 15 months, the new high-bay warehouse for Essity in Mannheim was handed over at the beginning of August 2018, at an official opening ceremony attended by a large gathering of guests. Many of them were unable to hide their awe at the impressive size of this construction, built with 3,600 m3 of concrete, 1,400 tonnes of galvanized steel, 11,700 m2 of non-flammable insulation panels installed on the façades, 6,300 m2 of insulated roof space and an outside staircase tower.

The special feature of the project was the unhindered connection to the old warehouse during operation, together with the simultaneous upgrading of all interfaces to today's safety standards, not least of which included increased fire protection standards.

Essity develops, produces and sells sustainable hygiene and health products that add value, and implemented its first International Distribution Centre together with BT-Anlagenbau in 1999. In 2005, the parent roll warehouse was added with 1,900 storage spaces, each capable of taking a pallet weight of 4 tonnes. The third warehouse has added additional capacity, allowing a further 250 pallets per hour to be stored and retrieved. This is ensured by seven heavy-duty stacker cranes, with energy recover, which serve over 25,000 storage spaces.

All of this is made possible by technology from ECE-LOG, the Intralogistics Division of BT Anlagenbau, with round 80 units of control cabinets, control consoles and panels. ECE-LOG technology allows Essity to become even more energy efficient and cost-effective. In just 12 months, from start of construction to handover, the 320 employees involved in the construction created a high-bay warehouse in the super league. In total, more than 53,000 storage spaces have been constructed by BT-Anlagenbau at the location.

The management team is particularly proud of the expert project implementation, without a single occupational accident, as well as the outstanding performance in all the areas that contributed to realisation of this project. May we congratulate all the divisions on this success!