 | Setting the course, en route to the customer
Trailblazing distribution concepts have a tradition in the North of Bavaria. And also a name: Baur Versand. As early as 1925 the company's founder, Friedrich Baur,
implemented a concept that many dot-com startups at the end of the 1990's were celebrating as an achievement of the New Economy - collective orders with payment by
instalments at no extra interest. Having originally focused on brand-name shoes, Baur now, as part of the Otto Group, offers "family-friendly shopping" to attract
customers to their mail-order facility and departmental store specializing in fashion, furniture and equipment.
25 million packages every year
As the fifth largest mail-order house in Germany and an Otto subsidiary, Baur Versand cooperates with competent partners such as Hermes Versand Service, a company that
restructured the dispatching system. A symbol of the new approach is the hub at Baur's headquarters in Altenkunstadt, where 75 employees operating a 2-shift system process 25
million packages a year from the company's business with intra-group and outside customers.
Ready to go in record time
Pulsating heartbeat of the hub: two sortation systems capable of handling 100,000 customer packages every day. Whereas the tilt-tray sorter with high-speed presorting feature in
the shipping area was supplied by Crisplant, a subsidiary of FKI Logistex, the new business unit Interroll Axmann Automation implemented the materials handling equipment and the
miniload sortation system - in just four months. "We were able to begin fine calibration and threshold optimization straight after commissioning," reports Wolfgang
Seib, manager of the dispatch department at Baur, who was impressed with the sophistication and functionality of the system. With the system's 30 belt curves, 750 m of
conveyor belt and 110 roller conveyors in 24V technology including merges and curves, Baur is also relying on Interroll Axmann's competence in conveyor technology.
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