Sanofi-Aventis
Joana

AUTOMATED HIGH-BAY SILO

Kocher Regalbau built an automated warehouse for the pharmaceutical corporation Sanofi-Aventis.The warehouse is providing space for a total of 15.200 load units and is located in the Höchst Industrial Park in Frankfurt.

Rack type

Palette warehouse

Capacity

15200

load units on CP1 palettes

THE CUSTOMER

Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, based in Frankfurt am Main, is one of the ten largest pharmaceutical companies worldwide and generated sales of around 5.4 billion euros in 2012. With state-of-the-art, innovative pharmaceuticals, established branded products, non-prescription OTC products as well as generics, Sanofi-Aventis has a significant amount of research and production in Germany.

THE PROJECT

Early 2007 the healthcare company planned a new plant at the southern end of the Höchst Industrial Park in Frankfurt with a total investment of 150 million euros.
The new plant was to produce so-called insulin pens for the global market. Part of the plant should be a large warehouse in the immediate vicinity of Sanofi-Aventis' medicines distribution centre. Kocher Regalbau GmbH was commissioned to design and implement the unusually high steel racking in silo construction.

THE IMPLEMENTATION

BWhen implementing the high-bay silo, it was necessary to work with different room temperatures. In four of the high-bay warehouse aisles the goods are stored at room temperature, while in the fifth aisle a room cooling was installed. In each rack compartment two palettes with a maximum load of 800 kg were implemented. This resulted a lengthwise axial pitch of 3.070 mm. Automatic storage / retrieval systems were installed for loading and unloading the load units.

SPECIAL CHALLENGE

For the storage of the so-called insulin pens, which are filled with insulin solutions, special circumstances had to be considered during the design. The insulin pens are extremely sensitive in their production and storage. The valuable product setting has influenced the design of the warehouse which accommodates components, packaging material, part finished goods and finished goods on CP1 palettes.