Bright future for S. Siedle & Söhne

S. Siedle & Söhne (or Siedle), a German family business, has been in operation for more than 270 years. Currently run by CEO Gabriele Siedle, the company recently decided to future-proof its operations with AutoStore.

Siedle produces over 80% of its products on-site in Furtwangen, situated in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany. In 2018, Siedle generated a consolidated turnover of 88 million euros and employed over 500 people.

The company has a long and fascinating history. In the 1750s, Mathäus Siedle established a foundry business casting bells for clock manufacturers on his farm in Furtwangen. Since then, S. Siedle & Söhne has remained a fixture of the region, becoming one of the pioneers of the German telephony industry and specializing in the field of in-house and door telephony.

Today, Siedle is still in the business of communication and specializes in building communication technology for domestic, industrial, and office settings. Their products include video surveillance equipment, intercom systems, digital camera systems, access control units, state-of-the-art doorbells, and letterboxes.

Siedle also sells environmental systems for building climate control in both industrial and office settings in Germany and the international market.

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"A change in logistics essential"

In 2018, Siedle decided to modernize its warehouse processes and technology, as the business was expanding and its current warehouse was under pressure.

“A change in logistics was essential so we could meet the needs of both our customers and production with regard to warehouse reliability and performance,” says Rainer Broghammer, Logistics Manager at Siedle.

Broghammer shares that the use of space had to be optimized to relieve the high-bay warehouse — ideally without significant structural changes and with a moderate level of investment.

The Siedle team decided to replace their small parts warehouse with an AutoStore system, empowered by Dematic, as the existing facility had reached its limit with regard to storage and retrieval capacity.

The AutoStore system at S. Siedle & Söhne  

The new warehouse automation system was launched during ongoing operations in May 2020.

Currently, the AutoStore storage grid covers only 480 square meters (5,166 square feet).

A total of 12,571 Bins, all stacked on top of one another, form part of the grid. Each Bin has a carrying capacity of 30kg (66lbs), and nine warehouse Robots make for fast-paced, efficient order picking.

Never tiring, the Robots slide across the grid to deliver Bins containing ordered goods to the system’s workstations, where warehouse staff prepare the items for dispatch. The system is controlled and operated directly by an SAP WM system, empowered by Dematic.

How S. Siedle & Söhne benefits from AutoStore

The benefits of partnering with AutoStore have been numerous. “The flexible processes provided by AutoStore have relieved the strain on both the capacity and the performance of the previous high-bay warehouse,” Broghammer says.

He mentions that the installation allowed the company to reduce its dependence on external suppliers, improve its transparency levels, and increase the overall performance of the warehouse system. What’s more, the installation was done without interruption of normal operations.

Siedle has maximized its storage capacity in this facility and dramatically increased their team’s efficiency. The system is also future-proof and can easily be expanded in years to come, helping the centuries-old company to become even stronger.