Biebesheim, Germany
Fresenius Medical Care
Fresenius Medical Care is the world's leading provider of products and services for people with chronic kidney failure, including more than 2.1 million patients worldwide who regularly undergo dialysis treatment. Fresenius cares for 233,156 dialysis patients through its network of 2,898 dialysis clinics in North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Fresenius Medical Care is also the world's leading provider of dialysis products such as hemodialysis machines, dialyzers, and related disposable products. The company is listed on the Frankfurt (FME, FME3) and New York (FMS, FMS/P) stock exchanges.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Faced with dynamically rising goods flows early in 2006, Fresenius starts a major intralogistics project that takes into account further growth over the next 10 to 15 years. Alpha Industrial (logistics property specialists) emerges as an investor: this is the first time in Germany that the investor not only funds and leases the building, but also the associated technology. A high-bay warehouse, conveyor system, and software will be designed to meet general purposes beyond the Fresenius requirements – from the layout to the details. The advantage of sustainability clearly outweighs the additional cost for the investor.
Exceptional levels of reliability are obviously required for the storage and order picking of medical equipment and materials. Against this backdrop, LTW is awarded the full-service provider contract for the intralogistics, including the construction of a silo and the installation of a sprinkler system. The most important criterion is readiness in continuous operation. LTW works together with Fresenius Medical Care on an innovative full-service concept: LTW guarantees system availability of 98% over the entire 15-year term of the lease.
With this in mind, LTW puts together a separate on-site service team, in close cooperation with Fresenius. All five LTW employees get acquainted with every aspect of the system. At least two people constantly monitor operation, and use the time for preventive maintenance, so that the number of services can be halved, to just one per year. The new distribution center brings together the two previous central storage facilities, with different target regions and order structures. Seventy percent of the goods are exported as full pallets to 140 countries.
Expansion
