Fast order processing, reliability and cost efficiency. At its logistics center in Lauenau, EDEKA Minden-Hannover is relying on the advantages of an automated picking system for fresh fruit and vegetables. Together with other EDEKA regions and the national EDEKA subsidiary Netto, EDEKA Minden-Hannover is thus one of the first German food retailers to rely on this new innovative system solution. The group of companies invested a low double-digit million amount for this.
The Lauenau logistics center is constantly working on optimizing its processes. The aim is, among other things, to reduce the workload of employees and to continue to ensure consistently reliable deliveries to the stores. Fast and accurate order picking is indispensable for this. Professional quality management has always been a top priority.
“With the automated solution, we can also easily handle the increasing order volume of our stores. We solve these challenges effectively and future-proof with state-of-the-art technology,”
explains plant manager Kay Surk.
The innovative solution is supplied by the Finnish company Cimcorp, which has a long experience in the market. The system is currently running in trial operation.
🍏 New technology makes daily work easier for employees 🍋 Automation ensures reliable deliveries 🥬 Group of companies invests double-digit million euro amount
Example images of Cimcorp’s intralogistics automation solution
Overhead gantry
Carton and plastic totes
New technology makes daily work easier for employees
With the Cimcorp system, EDEKA Minden-Hannover is also significantly improving working conditions for its employees. The automated picking system takes over all heavy and repetitive tasks. In this way, the physical strain is reduced enormously.
In addition, it makes it easier for employees to reconcile work and family life, because items from the fruit and vegetable range are also picked on Sundays and public holidays. The new system means that far fewer staff are needed on these days than before. However, there will be no layoffs as a result of this automation.
“Overall, we will need fewer employees in the picking area in the future, but at the same time we have also created new jobs, since the plant has to be looked after from a technical as well as an organizational point of view,”
explains the plant manager.
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Automation ensures reliable deliveries
Whether manual, partially or fully automated, fresh fruit and vegetables pose a challenge to logistics. Reliable delivery to the markets must be ensured at all times – even on Sundays and public holidays – and the degree of freshness must be maintained. As in manual picking, the “first in – first out” principle also applies in automation.
The goods that are delivered to the warehouse first must also be the first to leave the site. The Cimcorp system also works according to this principle and picks the goods accordingly.
To support this, the Cimcorp system takes the stores’ orders directly from their merchandise management system. This means that each individual order for the about 450 stores supplied by the fleet of vehicles at the Lauenau logistics center can be processed automatically.
In this way, the system takes the individually specified data and assembles, for example, five crates of apples, two crates of avocados and seven crates of potatoes into one delivery. This high-tech picking process ensures reliable, fast order processing at all times and also guarantees EDEKA’s merchants reliable deliveries in the long term.
Example images of Cimcorp’s intralogistics automation solution
Easy management
Goods in and out, fast
About EDEKA Minden-Hannover
About EDEKA Minden-Hannover
EDEKA Minden eG the cooperative celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2020. With a turnover of 9.79 billion euros and around 73,800 employees including the independent retail trade, EDEKA Minden-Hannover is the regional company with the highest turnover in the cooperatively organized EDEKA network. The business area extends from the Dutch to the Polish border; it includes part of East Westphalia-Lippe, almost all of Lower Saxony, Bremen, Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin and Brandenburg. Original press release
