Management + Systems

Würth Industrie Service and Dringenberg GmbH have collaborated to introduce the new CPS^®KANBAN flex, a Kanban rack system for the seamless, secure and efficient supply of production materials via RFID Kanban.

In addition to previous classic bin levels in the form of typical shelving, the new system opens up a possibility of levels without a base, by using modular shelves with rails. The companies say this intelligent system sets course for a holistic, C-Parts management solution of the future. 

The new CPS^®KANBAN flex rack has a modular design offering a range of configurations, including the usual shelves, and modular shelves with rails, as well as drawers, or even shelves with dividers to accommodate longer items. Each base can be used individually, depending on different customer needs, and the modules can be reconfigured after each application, if required. 

The use of rail technology significantly reduces the fire load compared to conventional shelves, and the rails, in combination with crossbars together with the system’s particularly upright profile, prevent individual bins from slipping unintentionally – so they always maintain their position. The rails are compatible with all bins regardless of the size, with the patented Würth small load carrier W-KLT^®2.0 ensuring the absolute flexibility of the rack. Four rack variants with different rack depths (600mm/800mm), rack widths (1,000mm/1,300mm), and rack heights (2,000mm/1,600mm), are available for storing the bins. The standard rack usually consists of two upright frames, 18 traverses and also one iSHELF^® base from the CPS^®RFID family. If a bin is empty, the integrated shelves detect this immediately via an integrated sender/receiver unit in the shelf. The rack reads the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip and transfers the information about the empty bin directly to the Würth Industrie Service in-house developed, Kanban Management System (KMS). 

The grid solution on the front side of the rack gives scope to add more units and with optional perforated side panels or rear panels, CPS^®KANBAN flex offers all-round potential for attaching individual accessories to CPS^®ORSY factory equipment. In addition to bin fall protection for RFID levels, other attributes include fully extendable drawers with a load capacity of 200kg per drawer; shelves with partition inserts for long goods, such as cable ties or hydraulic hoses or loose items; as well as base panels, rear and side panels (closed or perforated), doors and additional accessories. The new modular system is sturdy with a high load bearing capacity of up to 800kg. 

“Under the brand CPS^® C-Product Service, Würth Industrie Service offers manufacturing industry customers highly flexible kanban solutions for efficient and transparent optimisation of existing production processes. In particular, fully automated systems from the CPS^®RFID family are well established and proven for replenishing production materials,” explains Würth Industrie Service. “Using RFID enables radio controlled data transmission directly from a customer’s production location to Würth’s central warehouse. With automated and demand oriented reordering of production materials, industrial companies can benefit from maximum supply and delivery security.” 

At the heart of all this is the Kanban bin, which, in the case of Würth, is its patented Würth small load carrier, the W-KLT^®2.0. This is available in various sizes according to the VDA standard and is equipped with an RFID tag by default, with each transponder easily identifiable through its unique data security number. In the ‘outgoing goods’ process, for example, the ID of a particular bin is linked with the corresponding outgoing goods item. Through the various RFID systems – in the case of CPS^®KANBAN flex this is usually through the iSHELF^® rack – the ID of the bins can be read and transferred to the KMS for either data transfer or for the automated reordering of C-Parts. The Kanban rack can also be used in combination with other system solutions, such as the battery operated iPLACER^®, which is a demand logging module; with the digital rack label, iDISPLAY; or with the weighing bin iSCALE. All these combinations ensure absolute supply security. In addition, ORSY^®mat systems used by C-Parts’ partners are also ideal additions to this whole warehousing ecosystem.