Online Retailer Relies on highly-flexible WMS

In March 2020, the first parcel left the modernized logistics site in Sonnefeld, Germany, after the scheduled completion of extensive migration and expansion measures. The BAUR Group had invested about 20 million euros to expand the logistics processing of the Otto Group in Upper Franconia. Since then, parcels have been sent from Sonnefeld to OTTO and BAUR Group customers, including the UNITO brand, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. By the end of the year, over 500 employees will have shipped about 25 million items – mainly textiles, shoes and jewelry. This amounts to about 10 million shipped parcels and bags.

With Sonnefeld, the services division of the BAUR Group expanded its logistics activities for the Otto Group in order to be able to handle increasing processing requirements within the Group. The traditional location in Altenkunstadt reached its capacity limits after the products of the rapidly expanding fashion retailer ABOUT YOU were successfully delivered throughout Europe from there. The go-live of Sonnefeld has another advantage: Altenkunstadt now has room for further growth in the services sector.

In Sonnefeld, Baur relies on a powerful and flexible warehouse management system from the logistics software specialist inconso, part of the Business Area Körber Supply Chain. The solution is based on inconsoWMS, which has already stood the test of time in Altenkunstadt and is optimized for Baur processes. In some cases, processes had to be tailored and changed. In detail: With 260,000 locations in the picking area and 305,000 locations in reserve storage, the system architecture is largely based on the highly optimized processes in Altenkunstadt. Order data is continuously transmitted to the WMS; orders are planned in waves using a highly flexible order control system. One part of the system architecture is a sorter that supports automated order processing. The new location in the shipping area was designed for efficient and user-friendly processes via Put-to-Light.