From Wustermark in Brandenburg, all dm drugstores in northern and eastern Germany are gradually being supplied with cardboard goods – quickly and efficiently thanks to logistical automation and robotics. Since 2018, the high-tech distribution centre has been built from scratch on a greenfield site with a floor area of around 30,000 square metres. The concept and the intralogistics originate from Swisslog.

Swisslog supplied data- and robot-controlled logistics

The large-scale facility features a logistics mix composed of the core components of an automated pallet high-bay warehouse with 24,000 slots and a shuttle warehouse – Swisslog’s CycloneCarrier – with 265,000 slots for small-sized goods. A total of 15 picking lines are connected: eight manual and seven ACPaQ robot cells. With the support of KUKA palletizing robots, mixed packages can be picked fully automatically.

"The first pallet leaving the center in Wustermark headed for our dm drugstores marks a milestone," said Christoph Werner, Chairman of the dm Board at the opening in May. " Considering the current situation, it’s that much sweeter a success and marks an important investment in the future for us. Especially since the availability of goods in the dm drugstores and the online shop is our top priority.”

"In the distribution center, the dm-drogerie markt is completely implementing the goods-to-human and goods-to-robot principle," explains Daniel Hauser, Senior Vice President and Head of Region Central Europe & Middle East, Swisslog. "We are proud and happy that the data-controlled robotics system we developed is now putting its powerful capabilities in real life, under high load operation."

Longstanding partnership

After Waghäusel in Baden-Württemberg and Weilerswist in North Rhine-Westphalia, Wustermark in Brandenburg is Swisslog’s third major plant in Germany that the intralogistics specialist realized for dm.

Swisslog and dm have a long and successful partnership. In general, robotics-based automation is playing an increasing role in the booming retail and e-commerce sectors. Increasing efficiency pressure in retail and round-the-clock performance require ultra-modern systems and can only be successfully mastered in the long term with the support of automation and robotics. 

Dr. Christian Baur, CEO of Swisslog