News
Lohmann Therapie-Systeme AG celebrates opening of new logistics centre
11.09.2015
Over the past two years LTS, global market leader in transdermal systems and oral thin films development and production, has invested a total of €16 million in a brand new logistics centre at its Andernach site. The purpose of the newbuild is to support the sustained growth in production with optimal logistics processes.
Concentrating the logistics at the site will make it possible to react quickly and flexibly to production requirements. io-consultants has been conducting the project as general planner from concept to operation.
The new logistics centre, which began operations in August 2015, was ceremoniously opened on 10 September 2015. Welcome speeches were held by Professor Dr. Wolfgang Hartwig, Chairman of LTS Lohmann Therapie-Systeme AG, Dr. Peter Schwarz, member of the LTS AG board of directors, and Achim Hütten, Mayor of Andernach, followed by guided tours through the facilities by project managers Heinz-Rudi Brathuhn (LTS) and Stephan Wecker (io-consultants).
On account of the strict international drug administration requirements to which the logistics centre is subject, the planning phases of the newbuild required constant interdisciplinary exchanges between production, logistics, quality assurance, and IT. To this purpose LTS commissioned the consulting and planning company io-consultants, who also specialise in pharmaceutical logistics, to act as general planner for the architecture, TBE and logistics, and as an SAP implementation partner. io-consultants conducted the project from initial concept to planning, tendering, supervision of implementation, and final approval.
In his speech, Dr. Schwarz made particular mention of process quality being a guiding principle throughout the newbuild project. »As a pharmaceutical manufacturer, the optimisation of all processes at the logistics centre was a key priority right from the start. All processes follow the ‘Lean Principles’ approach and support our work with optimal interactions between production and logistics«. The lean approach is underpinned by the integration of warehouse management and material flow control of the automatic pallet high bay warehouse with SAP WM, into the central SAP ERP system at LTS. All the processes and organisational aspects of the new logistics centre are thus fully integrated into the company’s SAP environment. This ensures high levels of transparency and process reliability, and LTS can meet the legal documentation requirements relating to stock reliability, batch tracking and the cooling chain. Mobile SAP workplaces with data communication features handle these documentation issues in the manual areas.
The most striking feature of the new logistics centre is the 34m high-bay warehouse. Spanning an area of 72m by 31m, it provides space for 14,000 pallets on 18 levels. Miniload stackers in the aisles can transfer up to 120 pallets per hour. Pharmaceuticals and their starting materials are stored in the warehouse at constant temperatures between 15 and 25°C all year round. This new building has freed up production space in other areas to cater for future expansion.
The two-storey annex accommodates the incoming and outgoing goods areas and the truck loading gates on the ground floor, which is connected to the warehouse and the high-bay racks via a fully automated conveyor system. Thanks to SAP-based mobile data recording, barcode labelling for incoming goods, and automatic pallet measuring and weighing, every pallet finds its place in one of the 14,000 high bay pallet spaces autonomously. On the upper floor of the annex is where the supplies for the adjacent production areas are coordinated. All the items needed for a particular production job are gathered in their correct quantities at two picking stations, then placed on conveyor lanes and transported to the relevant production line on cue.
Thomas Kilimann, Managing Director at io-consultants, congratulated the entire project team on the successful new build.