Tradition meets Top Technologies

The watch producer Tissot opened in the Swiss village of Le Locle an innovative logistics center, which comes up to the enterprise’s important growth – made by Stöcklin Logistics.

Photo by Stöcklin Logistik AG

Due to the growing demand of percent in double figures compared to the previous year for their chronographs „par excellence“ Tissot faced big challenges also in the field of logistics. To get under control this evolution both now and in the future, Tissot invested in the erection of a new logistics center which entered into production after a construction period of only 10 months. The plant has been designed to handle each year a sales volume of five to six million completely assembled watches. By this, Tissot almost doubled its existing storing capacities at the central headquarter.

A landmark as a well visible promise of quality
With a storing capacity of 7,500 cubic meters the new logistics center holds up to 12 million components, watches and accessories. The plant is operated in 2 shifts, during 16 hours on five days a week.

The heart of the plant is formed by a totally automated small parts, served by five stacker cranes (SCR) of the BOXer series. Across two logistically linked levels, each equipped with a conveyor loop, clearly defined function levels are arranged. On the first floor workplaces for the component picking, allocated to the automated small parts warehouse, has been installed. The upper floor is dedicated to the picking of finished products. The small parts warehouse has been complemented by a box live storage system for fast movers (watches) and a manually operated pallet racking which accommodates mainly accessories.

The anti-oscillation drive mounted on the mast head contributes to the required high dynamics of the stacker crane. It eliminates the oscillations of the mast as far as possible, thus supporting the motion of the cranes in horizontal direction. This way, the dynamic ratings may be doubled and the cycle times reduced while maintaining the same work load. With the implementation of the BOXer solution, conceived as a lightweight construction, the generated braking energy is transferred to other axes thanks to the combination of infeed and regenerative feedback modules, allowing for massive energy savings.

The 3D visualization system integrated in the WMS allows an overview on all operating and process states in real time. For this, the position data of the different material flow objects are captured in short cycles and instantly converted into a dynamic and animated display. Possible failures are immediately localized and indicated. The great advantage of 3D visualization is that the control desk staff may intervene rapidly in problematic situations to restore the trouble-free operation.