Recently, the medium-voltage switchgear factory of Siemens in Shanghai, a subsidiary of China's Siemens, has
increased its warehouse space by 300%, improved picking efficiency by 150%, and achieved an inventory accuracy
rate of 99.99% by deploying the robot system of Geek+. This has become a new model for the intelligent warehouse
transformation in the discrete manufacturing field.
This project not only enhances efficiency but also sets a new benchmark for lean digitalization in the field of discrete
manufacturing.
Since 2019, both sides have overcome the difficulties of "the absence of existing solutions" and "uninterrupted
production", and gradually built differentiated intelligent logistics solutions on the basis of the original production system.
As one of the core nodes of Siemens' global supply chain, the Shanghai factory needs to handle hundreds of thousands of
SKUs ranging from large steel structures to tiny electronic components. The manual processing is difficult to meet
the demands of high customization and high responsiveness.
Therefore, Geek + offers a new concept of "robot matrix + system collaboration",
mobilizing over 100 robots of different types to work in coordination, connecting the entire process from receiving goods,
inspection, shelving, storage, picking to line delivery and distribution, and building an intelligent system for efficient
material flow and management.
The types of robots include shelf picking robot P800, pallet picking robot RS8, small container robot P40, storage
robot X1200, intelligent transportation robot MP1000R and automatic forklift F12ML. The robot cluster is deeply
integrated with Siemens' local WMS, MES and SAP systems, forming a "full-process collaboration ecosystem" between
upstream suppliers and production lines: achieving real-time data exchange, on-time replenishment, shortening
inventory turnover time and improving response speed. The system converts production signals into precise logistics actions,
greatly reducing human errors and enhancing the accuracy of distribution.
In terms of warehouse space management, Geek + implements a "dynamic storage location zoning" strategy: small
items are placed in a 6.9-meter-high small item mezzanine. The medium parts are stored on the four-way shuttle
rack. Large or irregular-shaped items are placed on steel platforms and processed by shelf robots. This spatial
reconstruction reduces the floor space occupied by small components by 60% and increases the overall storage capacity by
300% on the same area basis.
Shanghai Siemens attaches great importance to the concept of "people-oriented". The operation area of the warehouse
robots is equipped with intelligent safety fences. Staff members need to wear professional protective equipment and rely
on the intelligent obstacle avoidance system when entering and leaving to ensure their safety. Safety traffic lights are set up in
the production line handling area to ensure orderly and safe human-machine interaction. Humanized design has also improved
the working environment. Some warehouse workers have been transferred from material handling positions to system operation
and maintenance engineers. They said, "From material receiving workers to system maintenance engineers, I have
been exposed to more new technologies."
The success of this project has revealed the key path for the intelligentization of manufacturing: when traditional manual labor
can no longer meet customized and high-frequency demands, the collaboration between robots and systems becomes the way
out. From spatial efficiency, picking speed, accuracy to humanized safety and employee skill enhancement, all can
be improved simultaneously during the intelligent transformation. As a pioneering case of intelligent upgrading in warehousing, the
Siemens Shanghai factory has demonstrated the evolution path from "partial automation" to "digitalization of the entire factory",
and from "efficiency improvement" to "management upgrade". This provides a real and replicable path sample for other
enterprises seeking intelligent upgrades in the discrete manufacturing field.
