Behind the scenes
A sneak peek at Skypod: how your parcel reaches your front door
by Manuel Wenk
Working to the millimetre across 5,600 m2
12.6.2019
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook
Pictures: Thomas Kunz
There’s an upbeat mood in our central warehouse in Wohlen (AG). Thousands of parcels leave the building every day and we have assembly teams working to create and expand our logistics capacity. Here’s the first status report from the site.
In the warehouse in Wohlen, no stone is left unturned. Plenty of modifications and expansions are underway to make sure you get your online order quickly, sometimes as soon as the next day. But the star of the show is the new Shuttle depot for small products. Once it’s up and running, the fully automated, multi-storey warehouse will more than double our capacity.
There’s plenty of space in the Shuttle
The Shuttle is almost primed and ready to go. If you take a walk through the new warehouse, you’ll hardly be able to hear yourself think. All around there’s non-stop clattering of drill drivers, screeching of cutting discs across the 5,600 m2 warehouse and sparks flying all over the place. At the moment there are 50 fitters hard at work, completing the build of the huge multi-storey warehouse. Metalworkers hover across the depot on hoists as they screw in one shelf after the other, to millimetre precision. But really, it couldn’t be anything less than exact when they’re building a completely automated storage and removal system. Once the facility is complete, it will be able to house up to 180,000 containers.
Receiving goods – something for the emergency team
For the Shuttle warehouse to run like clockwork, we needed to make adjustments in other areas. Receiving goods is a bit like open-heart surgery. It’s closed off and protected from nosey glances with tarpaulin. Inside the product reception area, it’s humming with activity and 40 new workstations have been added. Every hour there’s another lorry leaving more goods on the ramp. But the team is making quick work of the building and renovation job. The bespoke conveyor systems have already been installed and an extra conveyor band has been tacked on above to transport away the accrued mountain of cardboard boxes. In a matter of days, we’ll be getting a delivery of a sample workbench so that staff can be trained in June and July and the warehouse can be put through its paces.
If there’s one thing in particular that the newly designed product entrance will give us then that’s time. Starting from the beginning of August, delivered goods will be unpacked, checked, scanned, placed in containers and transported to various storage locations in the warehouse via conveyor belts. What does that mean in concrete terms? It removes three time-consuming and physically demanding tasks. Even the logistics bottleneck that was once the «Product entrance» will soon be history.
Norina Brun
Senior Communications Manager
norina.brun@digitecgalaxus.chNews aren’t enough for me – it’s the stories behind the news that capture my interest. Curiosity is my constant companion and the reason why I spend Saturday afternoons in my favourite café, eavesdropping on city stories while planning my next travel adventure and creating new event ideas. Zen meditation can wait.
