Robots handle goods receipt at the Bauhaus central warehouse

The goods receipt processes at Bauhaus’s import and central warehouse in Krefeld are now being handled by robots. The company describes this as a new level of efficiency. In future, XYZ Robotics’ Rocky robots will take over the unloading of containers, as well as sorting and palletising, in a seamless and fully automated workflow.

The German DIY retailer’s import and central warehouse in Krefeld, which supplies stores across Europe with products, processes thousands of goods receipts every day, comprising more than 10,000 items. The items must be unloaded, sorted and loaded onto pallets for further processing. For warehouse staff, this has previously meant physically demanding work in confined spaces, leading to an increased risk of injury. As the parcels vary greatly in shape, weight and palletising patterns, conventional automation systems quickly reach their limits, according to the company.

XYZ Robotics enables the automation of the unloading process with an integrated solution. The process is described as follows: first, the Rocky One drives autonomously into the shipping container, analyses the size and shape of the parcels and unloads the boxes. A scanning system captures the barcodes, after which the Rocky One SE sorts the goods onto the waiting pallets according to specified patterns, thereby significantly reducing the workload for staff.

"Since it went live earlier this year, the system – one of the first of its kind in Europe – has been running reliably and completely autonomously. This allows our team to focus on more value-adding tasks," says Torsten Winter, Vice President of Operations (Warehousing & Transport) at BAHAG/Bauhaus AG. "We are already exploring where else we can deploy this technology within our network. With XYZ Robotics, we have a reliable, forward-looking partner at our side to make Bauhaus’s logistics even smarter."