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08/06/18
Company

Five days faster!

Story: Five days faster!

Reorganisation at the Kassel Depot shortens travel time of replacement parts

More than 90 million vehicles from all brands of the Volkswagen Group populate the roads in six of the seven continents. 23,500 service centres and partners worldwide handle 300,000 workshop visits per day. Volkswagen guarantees the supply of replacement parts for at least 15 years after production of a model has ended. In Europe, no other manufacturer has such a close-knit service network. And if needed, out-of-stock replacement parts can be delivered within 24 hours – to almost any corner of the earth.

At the heart of this unique logistics chain are 19 so-called master depots. They receive direct deliveries of 1.63 million different parts from approximately 6,000 companies as well as factories in the Group and then, in turn, ensure that the 135 regional depots throughout the world are supplied with parts. The undisputed number one of these master depots is in the middle of Germany. In Kassel, around 460,000 replacement parts for vehicles and complete ranges of workshop equipment for service operations are permanently stored in a roofed area of one square kilometre.

The Kassel Master Depot: one square kilometre of Volkswagen

Fifty percent of the value of the goods sold by the brands Volkswagen, Audi and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is handled by this depot alone. Almost 2,000 employees work in three shifts around the clock to ensure that supplies are delivered without a hitch.

The sea freight volume alone has grown by a good 50% over the last five years, which means that more and more parts are being removed from their cage pallets and repacked into overseas shipping containers to be shipped abroad.

At workshops, the employees developed ergonomic repacking stations and simultaneously significantly increased the degree of automation in the process. The new machine, which cost €9 million, consists of a conveyor system of a total of 550 metres with 680 drive motors. The investment was able to improve productivity by up to 40% – and also significantly shortened travel distances for the forklifts.

The Head of the Kassel Depot, Claus Wriebe, has every reason to be proud: “The highlight of this new facility is that customers receive their order five days faster” he reported. This also has positive effects on stocks. Wriebe added “There is no other facility like this worldwide.”

A peek behind the scenes: outgoing goods operations for sea freight.
From left: Holger Bätz (Head of Warehouse and Transport Logistics) and Claus Wriebe (Head of the Kassel Depot)

The conveyor system the orders in their cage pallets into the shipping area.

Here, in four consecutive steps, the ordered goods are repacked into sea freight boxes. First, in a preparatory step, an employee chooses a box of the right size.

Next, the box and the cage pallet go into a buffer storage area and are automatically brought to the next available repacking station.

The parts are then packed into prepared boxes at a total of ten stations.

The ergonomic work stations offer lifting aids and height-adjustable floors. Even the height of the cage pallet can be adjusted.

After repacking, the boxes are moved by the new conveyor system to the post-processing area, while the empty cage pallets are returned via the depot’s process loop. Now in post-processing, the package is labelled and then closed fully automatically.

Only now does a forklift come into the picture; it takes the box to its respective loading area, thus assigning it to the suitable sea freight container.

Each container can hold up to 60 boxes.

Once the containers have been completely filled, they leave the Kassel Depot for the freight centre in the Hessian city of Waldau. After that, the box is transported via train to the harbour in Hamburg or Bremerhaven and then shipped overseas. The destinations are the regional depots, which are generally responsible for processing the orders for the product ranges at the importers. Up to 80 containers are loaded every day. Over the course of a year, this amounts to around 21,000 containers. If the containers were lined up in a row, they would cover a distance of 300 kilometres, which is the approximate distance from Kassel to Hamburg.

“The repacking facility is an investment in securing the future of our sea freight operations and also proves the significance of this department for the Volkswagen Group’s After Sales business worldwide” summed up the Head of the Depot, Mr Wriebe.

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Products as well as Volkswagen AG distributors can be found at: www.volkswagen.de.

The specified fuel consumption and emission data have been determined according to the measurement procedures prescribed by law. Since 1st September 2017, certain new vehicles are already being type-approved according to the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP), a more realistic test procedure for measuring fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Starting on September 1st 2018, the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) will be replaced by the WLTP in stages. Owing to the more realistic test conditions, the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions measured according to the WLTP will, in many cases, be higher than those measured according to the NEDC. For further information on the differences between the WLTP and NEDC, please visit www.volkswagen.de/wltp.

We are currently still required by law to state the NEDC figures. In the case of new vehicles which have been type-approved according to the WLTP, the NEDC figures are derived from the WLTP data. It is possible to specify the WLTP figures voluntarily in addition until such time as this is required by law. In cases where the NEDC figures are specified as value ranges, these do not refer to a particular individual vehicle and do not constitute part of the sales offering. They are intended exclusively as a means of comparison between different vehicle types. Additional equipment and accessories (e.g. add-on parts, different tyre formats, etc.) may change the relevant vehicle parameters, such as weight, rolling resistance and aerodynamics, and, in conjunction with weather and traffic conditions and individual driving style, may affect fuel consumption, electrical power consumption, CO2 emissions and the performance figures for the vehicle.

Further information on official fuel consumption figures and the official specific CO2 emissions of new passenger cars can be found in the “Guide on the fuel economy, CO2 emissions and power consumption of new passenger car models”, which is available free of charge at all sales dealerships and from DAT Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH, Hellmuth-Hirth-Str. 1, D-73760 Ostfildern, Germany and at www.dat.de.