Swiss food discount retailer Denner has successfully gone live with the LFS Warehouse Management System and LYDIA Voice, the voice-directed picking solution from EPG (Ehrhardt Partner Group), at its new fresh food distribu-tion center in Mägenwil. A key distinguishing feature of the project was Denner’s ability to carry out the implementation largely independently. Thanks to many years of experience with LFS and LYDIA Voice, combined with close support from EPG, the company was able to efficiently and seamlessly transfer the established processes from its six existing sites in Schmitten, Frauenfeld, Lyss, Dietlikon, and an adjacent warehouse in Mägenwil to the new facility.
“Our long-standing and trusted partnership with EPG is an excellent example of sustain-able knowledge transfer,” explains Micha Burkhardt, Head of Business Applications Sales & Logistics at Denner.
“During our first joint projects, the EPG team invested heavily in training and supporting our key users, enabling us to build extensive expertise in operating LFS and LYDIA Voice over the years. As a result, we were able to handle the commissioning, user training, and first-level support for the new fresh food facility largely on our own. Throughout the project, EPG primarily acted as a sparring partner for solution design and quality assurance, helping ensure a successful implementation.”
The temperature-controlled warehouse in Mägenwil is already the sixth Denner site running EPG solutions. From this facility, Denner supplies approximately 250 stores with fresh products while meeting strict refrigeration and hygiene requirements. More than 700 products are stored across approximately 10,000 square meters of warehouse space at temperatures ranging from 2°C to 5°C. One of the primary objectives of the new facility was to significantly reduce transportation distances and further strengthen regional fresh food logistics. As a result, several thousand transportation kilometers can now be eliminated annually.
LFS manages all warehouse processes, from goods receipt and order picking to ship-ping, while ensuring strict compliance with the FIFO principle. Maintaining an uninter-rupted cold chain is another critical requirement. The operation relies on conventional material handling equipment, including order pickers, reach trucks, and counterbalance forklifts. For voice-directed picking, Denner uses LYDIA Voice on Zebra TC22 mobile devices paired with Bluetooth headsets. Employees currently work with the system in German, French, and English.
A key advantage of the voice solution is that it requires no voice training. Employees can begin working productively with LYDIA Voice immediately, regardless of language, dia-lect, or accent. This provides a high degree of operational flexibility, particularly when onboarding new employees or temporary workers.
The complete go-live was successfully completed in less than two weeks. However, the collaboration between the two partners is far from over. Denner is currently constructing another new distribution center in Aclens for ambient products, which is scheduled to go into operation in 2027.
