Exactly three years ago, Petr Jalůvka and his team went through all the warehouses on the premises of Veletrhy Brno in order to map what was stored in them. The time is approaching when the outputs of the summer logistics audit and the subsequent design of the new warehouse will be put to real use.

Construction of the new multi-functional Arena Brno hall is to begin this year. And since it will bite off a huge part of the area of the exhibition centre, two dozen warehouses will have to be demolished, and one large one built – according to the DYNAMIC FUTURE project, which was invited by the Brno company INVIN to co-operate.

“If any of our work was demanding in terms of the range of articles, then this is it. Twenty-one larger and smaller warehouses contained everything from button batteries to sets of crockery, electronics, twelve-metre beams, and carpets, through to stand structures and connecting material,” says Petr Jalůvka, noting that not only traditional warehouses were used to store them, but also cellars and the premises of historical objects of the exhibition centre

Multiple manipulations, non-connection of systems

Problem areas identified by DYNAMIC FUTURE included, among others, underutilization of overall warehouse space (higher use of the floors of warehouses), unclear item identification, large numbers of items stacked with other items (requiring multiple handling at checkout). To a large extent, front- loading trucks that could only be used in wide aisles were used, a huge number of atypes were stored in warehouses, information systems (GOP and SAP) were not connected, etc.

“We proposed consolidating the warehouses into one new warehouse, and changing the work system in the warehouses,including, for example, the use of a WMS (warehouse management system) for a controlled warehouse, various warehouse and handling technologies, identification of materials for the use of WMS, and electronic goods inwards and goods outwards directly in the warehouses themselves,” describes the Managing Director of DYNAMIC FUTURE.

A fifth of the original area must be enough

They mapped over 650,000 pieces of items on a total area of 22,300 square metres. An analysis of around 3.5 million movements of the exhibition equipment showed that it is realistic to get all of the objects into one central warehouse, with a capacity of almost 7,000 storage places, and an area of 4,400 square metres.

“We also had to take into account the requirements for storing atypes. Some items can be left outside, while others need to be dry and warm. When we had this described, we assigned appropriate storage conditions and technologies to each item, and fitted it all into the available spaces that should be newly created within the premises of the Brno exhibition centre,” says P. Jalůvka.

For the building of the future warehouse, DYNAMIC FUTURE designed pallet racks for EUR pallets, drive-in racks for EUR pallets with the use of a retractor (or a front-loading truck), console racks for large pallets, crates (using a four-way retractor, or a side-loading truck). They have also planned free areas for cages and large pallets using a retractor or front-loading truck, as well as a Kardex SP Shuttle lift tower for some types of materials, with two loading/discharge openings.

“As part of the design, we carried out a dynamic simulation of warehouse operations. The newly designed warehouse, together with the proposal for process modification and warehouse management, will make it possible to make the services provided by Veletrhy Brno more efficient,” explains Petr Jalůvka.

Ready in three months

At the end of spring 2022, DYNAMIC FUTURE and INVIN carried out a review of the entire project. The costs for implementation reach 1.5 billion crowns, so everything must be prepared down to the last detail.

“At the same time, we were examining the requirement to reduce the area of our proposed warehouse. However, the summary is that it is not possible to get everything into a smaller facility without affecting the number of stored items,” says the Company Representative.

How much time did the project take? According to Petr Jalůvka, “It was very fast”. Within a month of the request that came from INVIN, they started working, and in another 3 months, the logistics audit and the design of the new warehouse were completed.