Mecalux, a cutting-edge company worldwide for storage systems, has designed and built the new logistics centre in Poland for Lakma, one of the main chemical companies in the country. Poland is one of the main European markets for Mecalux, thanks to both the growing client portfolio and the advanced production plant for robotics and automation that was inaugurated in 2007, in the town of Gliwice. The company also has six commercial offices in the country.
The Lakma logistics centre, with 4,400 m2, is located in Warszowice, in the south of Poland, a strategic area due to its location and large economic potential. It is a totally automated building, controlled through the computer program Easy WMS® and equipped with stacker cranes to move goods faster and more safely.
The new warehouse, which is fully operational since the month of January, makes it possible for this company to manipulate its goods with much more agility, and consequently to supply them to its clients faster. At present, thanks to the conveyors installed in the high-rise warehouse, Lakma can move up to 162 pallets an hour in its logistics centre.
As Lakma’s production director, Maciej Paluch says, “our company is growing considerably and customers are demanding for a faster distribution of products, not only within the country but also abroad. This is why we decided to build the new facilities: to optimize the logistics chain, from the storage room to the picking for our customers”.
Mecalux has built a self-supporting warehouse, where shelves are actually part of the building’s structure, together with the façade and the roof. This construction system, together with automating the warehouse with high-rise stacker cranes makes it possible to reduce costs and to optimize the use of space.
With a storage capacity of up to 16,000 pallets, the logistic centre has shelves 30 metres high, separated by four passageways for the stacker cranes to move along. These machines that store the pallets automatically at a speed of 38 m/min. carry out the tasks of access, location exit of goods, eliminating any possible errors stemming from a manual management by operators.
The commercial director of MECALUX in Poland, Grzegorz Sotklosa explains that “the logistics centre is fully managed with the computing programme Easy WMS®, making it possible to control all the processes in the warehouse through radiofrequency terminals, from reception orders to dispatching, as well as the stock of stored goods”.
Preparing orders at high speed
Very close to the storage room a picking area has been built, covering a surface of 2,140 m2. Taking into account that the activity in the area is very busy, the facilities have been designed so that the goods can be moved quickly and easily. In this sense, operators can access almost 150 different high-rotation references simultaneously.
The storage and picking areas are united by a passageway 46 metres long, where there are 10 shuttle-cars in charge of transporting the pallets from one place to another. Goods are also moved on conveyors to where the operators are so they can prepare the orders.
LAKMA
Established in 1988, it specializes in several business sectors: from chemical products used for construction and households to professional chemistry and thermal insulation systems.
Lakma is a modern and innovative company that works to create and produce high-performance products and commercialize them. Innovation, quality and the environment are what this company champions. Its products are known for their safety, effectiveness and easiness to use. The dynamic development of the company is based on responding rapidly to the market needs, which it can do thanks to having the latest machinery, which is constantly being renewed, and to an extremely well equipped laboratory that ensures a high quality in all its products.
In Poland, Lakma has a large distribution network, besides a large network of commercial representatives, ensuring that sales are constantly rising in the country. It is also present in other EU countries.