REWE Group addresses labour shortages with automated fresh food solution from Cimcorp

REWE Group has partnered with Cimcorp on a project involving an automated fulfilment system for fruit and vegetables at the REWE logistics centre in Oranienburg, Germany, approximately 50 km north of Berlin.

Cimcorp’s intralogistics solution provides order picking for fresh products in plastic crates.

The agreement also includes a 24/7 customer support contract.

“Fruit and vegetables are an extremely important commodity group for our customers,” says Lars Sibel, Director SCM and Logistics at Rewe Markt.

“But characterised by heavy physical labour in the warehouses, which makes it difficult to recruit personnel.”

“Cimcorp offers a unique solution to automate fruit and vegetable picking and alleviate physical labour for warehouse workers and thereby ensure the reliable delivery of fruit and vegetables to stores in the future as well.”

“We expect a mature technical solution that facilitates the work of employees and offers customers consistently high delivery quality in terms of on-time-in-full deliveries,” says Torsten Prag, Logistics Manager for Region East, REWE Group.

“We believe that the new fulfilment system will guarantee our customers high delivery quality, even in times of labour shortages,” adds Prag. “However, we also want to examine what other opportunities arise as a result of faster order processing.”

“In addition to increased productivity and efficiency, Cimcorp’s fresh food solution offers a variety of other benefits, such as high levels of hygiene and fuller trucks,” says Riku Puska, Sales Manager, W&D Industry Sales at Cimcorp Group.

“The open floor design with no racking leads to easier cleaning and maintenance. Optimised truck loading results in less traffic and consequently reduces environmental impact.”

Sustainability

Cimcorp’s order picking solution is set to help REWE’s supply chain and intralogistics to become greener and more sustainable.

The service agreement includes maintenance and will extend the lifetime of the system. In addition, a faster supply chain enables longer shelf life, leading to less food waste.