Rohlik Group’s eGrocery provider Knuspr uphold their pledge of a 3-hour delivery and boost their efficiency by utilizing automation solutions from Element Logic.

By automating their new Prague fulfillment center with automation from Element Logic, eGrocery provider, Rohlik will have a three times growth in picking productivity, a double increase in overall productivity, training of new hires in 60 minutes.

Knuspr is the fast growing German eGrocery brand of the Rohlik group based in the Czech Republic. With a same day delivery service offered between 07:00 – 22:00, six days a week, they provide a selection of more than 12,000 items, with a mix of internationally known brands, and fresh locally produced products from local suppliers.

Meeting the demand as they expand their operations

Since opening their Munich fulfilment center in 2021, Knuspr has seen a steep growth in demand. As a result, they began to evaluate the potential of warehouse automation to improve performance and increase capacity.

They needed to maintain existing operations during any project. And as an existing site, they could not simply increase their floorspace; they would have to increase capacity without any additional footprint. A dense system installed and completed swiftly was a key factor.

As Knuspr offer a customer promise of three hours from order to delivery as standard, they were looking for a system capable of storing a diverse range of products, and with very high-speed picking capabilities.

Selecting the right automation, The Rohlik team started off by evaluating the warehouse tasks where the most work hours were being spent by their team, such as picking, storing, and replenishing stock. This allowed them to identify the processes where warehouse automation could make the biggest impact. As Chief Automation Officer for the Rohlik group, Aleš Malucha explains, this really helped them focus on “selecting the right technology” to achieve their goals. In fact, they evaluated all the warehouse automation technologies “available on the market and which might be suitable for our fast business,” says Mulacha. Since a high picking speed was such a high priority, an automated storage and retrieval ASRS system seemed like an obvious choice for improving productivity in the picking process, while still maintaining a high level of accuracy.

And when they compared the AutoStore system with a shuttle system, there was only one winner. While a shuttle system might help them execute an efficient process, it would offer “less flexibility and scalability” and would need long isles and considerably more floorspace to achieve the same storage capacity. The AutoStore system’s innovative cube design could help Knuspr significantly increase storage capacity at the existing site, without expanding their floor space. By utilizing space in all directions – up, down, and side to side, it makes use of additional storage space that was not utilized before.

In the end, the AutoStore system from Element Logic was selected because it could meet both day-to-day performance and long-term strategic needs. As Malucha explains, “it offered us stability, by supporting us in delivering our customers’ purchases in just a few hours. Secondly, we can scale it up, both in volume, as well as the assortment range that we extend by being in a city.”

Bringing the solution to life

After checking reference cases with similar installations, Rohlik selected official AutoStore partner, Element Logic, as their integrations partner for the project. As Element Logic’s Director of Strategic Business Development, Joachim Kieninger, recalls, building up a strong relationship with the project team was crucial, “Aleš and his team wanted to use AutoStore in the best way possible. So, they learned, starting with our first layout, step by step, more and more about the functionality of the AutoStore technology. And vice versa. We increasingly understood the vision of the processes Knuspr had in mind.”

Using the AutoStore simulation software, the project team were able to run various scenarios and iterate on their plan. As they were keeping the same floor space, they knew the storage density would need to be extremely high. As Kieninger in Element Logic highlights, it is “a very dynamic system with a very high density of robots on the grid.”

No room for error

Knuspr were able to continue with their existing warehouse management software (WMS), since the AutoStore system is highly interoperable, and can be integrated with almost any WMS, as well as ERP and similar platforms. In this case Element Logic simply added an additional software module to the WMS, to execute the additional operations in an automated process compared to the old manual flow.

The exciting part of the installation was the need to maintain the existing manual operation during the installation stage. As a result, the installation was planned over two phases.

In phase one, the floor was sectioned into two areas, with one designated for clearing and installing the new system, and the other section continued to operate with day-to-day orders. In phase two, the areas were reversed, until the full AutoStore installation was ready. This schedule left no room for error, and the strong relationship between customer and integrator helped the installation process going smoothly. “It was definitely an advantage that we knew each other well by then.” The total project was eight months, but the installation was completed in less than three.

Delivering faster than ever.

The site now handles 3000 orders per day. The fulfilment process is essentially the same as before but integrated into the AutoStore system to speed up key tasks. The result has been a big jump in performance and efficiency across the warehouse. With doubled overall warehouse productivity compared to the old manual operation and tripled efficiency of the picking process since going live, the implementation has been a success.

Process improvements are not the only benefit; employee satisfaction has grown as manual labor has been vastly reduced. Goods are delivered to the people, not the other way around; the goods practically handle themselves once they are in the grid. Picking, restocking, corrections etc., are all automated. This means team members can really focus on delivering quality.

Team training has also been streamlined as the new process is intuitive and easy to pick up. “It takes just one full hour with intensive training, and one full day” says Aleš Malucha before a new employee can work unsupervised on the floor.

Ultimately, the AutoStore system lets Knuspr be confident in keeping their customer promise of delivering in three hours or less as their standard. “The system is always up and running. We can deliver faster. We can pre-pick, and still fulfill the afternoon peak with the help of technology.” says Aleš Malucha.

Moving into the future

Following the success of this launch, Rohlik plans to open a new fulfillment center later in 2023, with plans to handle double (6000 order/day) the capacity of the current site. But the flexibility to scale at their pace was a huge plus of the AutoStore system. The modular design allows them to add more capacity as and when they need it at individual sites, without interrupting operations. To that end, Rohlik is adding with its partner Element Logic a second AutoStore system to the Munich site especially for chilled storage to be operational later in 2023.