New Wave CZ, Czech member of the Karel Holoubek Trade Group, sells qualityproducts in the paper goods and giftware market. The company ships orders within the shortest possible time to shopping centres, department stores, gift boutiques, toy shops, etc. in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. With the objective of increasing productivity, reducing labour costs and cutting picking times, the company placed their trust in SSI Schaefer in Graz and the Czech Republic to set up their distribution centre in Karlovy Vary.

A lack of reliable and transparent transaction data previously hampered the company in tracking and efficiently compiling and shipping stocks of stored and picked goods on time. New Wave had also been picking goods entirely manually. This posed particular challenges as SSI Schaefer was not able to access any reliable data to base the new logistics concept on. Nevertheless, the intralogistics specialist delivered a highly sophisticated solution that contributed significantly to the success of New Wave, introducing automated technologies, software solutions and the delivery of all components from one source.

The heart of the new system is a 5-aisle, automated small parts storage system with 35,000 container storage spaces. Here the Schaefer Miniload Crane (SMC) storage and retrieval system ensures efficient inward and outward goods movements. The Warehouse Management System (WMS) WAMAS controls all the processes. When a customer submits an order, the WMS processes it and starts picking the goods. In the outward movement, the SMC retrieves the load carriers and delivers them to a transfer zone. From here they travel via conveyors to the pick-to-tote workstations, where employees pick the goods according to the goods-to-man principle. Once again, a conveyor belt acts as a transport system conveying the goods to the dispatch station and preparing them for speedy dispatch.

“SSI Schaefer presented us with a concept for a fully automated warehouse using the goods-to-man principle. The solution was new to us, but proved to offer exceptionally high performance. It enabled us to increase our efficiency significantly and to optimise warehouse capacity”, reflects Mr Dusan Materna, CEO at New Wave. “The company now has an extremely advanced and highperformance logistics centre.”