iFD client KOMSA wins the German Logistics Award

Kommunikation Sachsen AG is the winner of the 2018 German Logistics Award, which was presented by the German Logistics Association (BVL) during the 35th German Logistics Congress.

Maximum flexibility, automation and digitalisation – these are the key elements of the ‘RELOAD – Digitalisation of KOMSA Intralogistics’ project, which KOMSA has implemented as part of an expansion of its headquarters. For a total of 30 million euros – the largest investment in the company’s history – KOMSA has built a three-storey “House of Services” and a new logistics centre, including a high-bay warehouse and an automated warehouse, in Hartmannsdorf, Saxony.

In doing so, KOMSA relies on robust IT: integrated digital logistics seamlessly links inventory management, warehouse logistics and transport and order control. Furthermore, automated and manual processes are intelligently interconnected. Thanks to the automated warehouse, items are available for dispatch in less than three minutes, and repair orders can be processed on the same day thanks to automated material flows.

The centrepiece of the logistics expansion is a 21-metre-high high-bay warehouse. Since 2017, this has provided storage space for around 14,500 pallets. iFD supplied the warehouse management software for this purpose, which, in addition to storage location management and bin search, also handles route optimisation and the control of the semi-automatic narrow-aisle forklifts. The software solution for the high-bay warehouse was integrated with the iFD warehouse management and material flow control software that has been in use since 2008.

The decisive factor for the BVL jury was how rigorously KOMSA, as a medium-sized enterprise, tailors its logistics processes to the needs of its industrial and commercial partners: through the judicious use of automated and manual processes, the wholesaler achieves speed where it counts whilst still being able to meet individual requirements.

With its project, KOMSA prevailed over two other strong finalists: DHL, with its hub in Leipzig, and Protostellar, part of the Thales Group, in Ditzingen near Stuttgart. “KOMSA impressed us most in terms of consistency and innovation,” said jury chairman Roland Tichy regarding the decision.