Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML
Lufthansa Technik Logistik GmbH (LTL) operates a central warehouse at the airport that supplies other locations of Lufthansa Technik AG (LHT) worldwide, as well as spare parts for airplanes and operating material worldwide to other customers. The fast delivery times, as stipulated in the contracts, place high demands on delivery service and delivery quality. Air and road transport is used to deliver the goods to the individual locations and from the manufacturers to the central warehouse.
Within the long-term planning with changed space utilization concepts for the new operating and location concepts were examined. Fraunhofer IML’s Project Center Aviation Logistics was commissioned to determine the feasibility of operating the central warehouse at a new location, which has less available space, while taking into account the high time requirements that are placed on the logistic processes. This included the specification of the dimensions and a layout design for the required handling areas. In addition to this, the Airport Projectcenter had to estimate the required investment costs and recommend warehouse technology systems and materials handling systems.
In the first step, the Project Center Aviation Logistics examined the logistical organization of the existing warehouse by analyzing the processes and material flows and carrying out a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the type of storage and inventory in use, as well as the performance of the current storage and retrieval system.
The future requirements for the central warehouse were determined based on the results of the analyses. Variations on the layout of the current warehouse were developed based on the future logistic requirements. Several variations were selected and model calculations were used to determine the dimensions of the handling areas of the selected variations. The handling areas contained the necessary materials handling systems and warehouse technology systems.
The IML Project Center Aviation Logistics selected one variation and demonstrated it´s feasiblityregarding the logisticaland economic perspective. This variant supports Lufthansa Technik Logistik GmbH in their preparation ofstrategic decisions for their location.