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In-house logistics for KABA, Switzerland:
With psb fit for the future

The globally operating Swiss manufacturer of locking systems, KABA, has been working with psb systems technology since 1988. At the company location Wetzikon, Switzerland, more than 100 jobs are integrated in the fully-automated material flow processes in production.
Special requirement in the manufacturing process is the large variability in the working steps for keys and key cylinders, and their combination. For more than 20 years, this process has been carried out by both, the automated psb bin storage, which separates the manufacturing steps, and the conveyor technology for the on-time supply of the workstations.
In the course of the latest system improvement, the system performance and storage capacity were increased, and new manufacturing processes were integrated into the software and the conveyor technology. The KABA in-house logistics was extended by an additional small parts warehouse for bins, which was connected with the existing system by new conveyor equipment. The old psb AS/RS stacker cranes were replaced by the latest generation of high performance AS/RS stacker cranes, type sprinter; the control units of the existing conveyor technology were exchanged for current PLCs. The new psb Warehouse Management System (WMS) selektron was interfaced to the customer’s ERP system SAP plus the production control. By selektron SCADA, all system areas are visualized, the new ones as well as the ones existing before. Thus, all operating states are displayed directly and immediately.
The retrofit measures and the extension were carried out in eleven steps, during ongoing production. Thanks to the close communication between KABA and psb, the works went on smoothly, without any production downtimes. The in-house logistics system at KABA is now fit again for the future.